To Survive
by Not Here Dont Talk to Me
Summary: Max is a girl who has had a bad life. Drawn into a life of crime by another girl, she is caught and taken to juvy. There she meets Fang, Iggy and Nudge. Together they have to work to escape... and to survive. AU, AH.
1. Chapter 1 The Burglar

**It's my new story!**

**I got this idea when I was reading Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz recently and I was just thinking, what if Matt didn't do the LEAF project? What if he decided to go to jail instead? So I decided to turn it into an MR fic :) This first chapter is based on what happens in the first part of Raven's Gate, btw.**

**Warning: Max is majorly OOC in this chapter. Like, she doesn't really seem like Max at all. But I'm betting that I will subconsciously do the story more in her style as it continues :P Oh, **_**and **_**she'll get more kickass as well ;)**

**Max POV **

Why did I do this? I know that I shouldn't have. I know it was wrong. I didn't even _want_ to do it. But I did. All for money.

I was standing next to my friend Alicia, looking up at the big warehouse in front of us, on the outskirts of Cody, a tiny town in Wyoming. Wind whipped around us and dark clouds completely blocked out the stars. All in all, not a very nice night.

'Are you sure there's no other way?' My voice sounded small and weak in the wind. Alicia looked at me in a very patronizing way.

'You're not trying to back out on me are you?' She asked. 'Because if you are, then I'm not sure I want you to hang out with me anymore.'

'Of course I'm not!' I tried to inject as much anger and attitude as I could into my voice but failed miserably. We were both the same age, sixteen, but whereas Alicia and her little gang of followers practically ruled the school, I was a complete loner, a loser. And so when Alicia decided to let me into her group, to take me under her wing (**haha**), it would have been an understatement to say I was flattered, and so I gladly accepted. Even though I didn't like a lot of the things she and her friends did. Like underage drinking. And smoking. And shoplifting. I just went along with it and kept my mouth shut, because I didn't want to lose my newfound high position. And I _could_ lose it any time, as Alicia had been kind enough to point out just then. I didn't really know if I actually _wanted_ to be in her group anymore. Some things just aren't worth it, you know?

She saw through my transparent bluff instantly and sighed. 'Look, it's a very simple plan.' She said impatiently. 'I've already gone through it with you. We pick the lock on the window, break into the security room where the camera screens will be showing. There aren't any guards; they record the video from the cameras. They look over the film about once a month, so we have plenty of time before that happens, right?' I nodded. Alicia's older brother had broken into this place before, so he knew how to get in to the warehouse. Still, Alicia's brother was a complete idiot, so I didn't know how much we could trust him. Probably best not to mention that to Alicia though. She just _might_ take offence.

'So we smash the monitors and computers and go through to the main warehouse. Got that?' I nodded again, even though I could see a huge hole in this plan. 'We grab everything we can and get out of there as fast as we can. We sell all the stuff and suddenly we have all the bling bling we need! Foolproof!' Finally I could stay silent no longer.

'But alarms! They'll have alarms won't they?'

'They won't have alarms! Why would they? This is a deserted warehouse in the middle of nowhere!' Alicia snapped. But there was an undercurrent of tension to her voice, and I knew I'd thought of something she hadn't. Don't worry, that's not unusual. Remember what I said about her brother? It runs in the family.

'Go get the packs.' She ordered me. I obediently picked up two bags lying on the ground about two meters away. They each contained a crowbar, with which we were going to smash the computers inside. 'Come on, let's go.' Alicia's voice was quieter now that our burglary had started. We crept cautiously around the side of the building to where we knew the security room was. Alicia laid her pack quietly on the ground and produced a long thin wire, which she carefully inserted into the lock on the window in the wall. She jiggled it around a bit, while I silently prayed it wouldn't open. I wish I had never come now. It was just too risky. A moment later there was a tiny click and Alicia was able to push open the window. She quickly slipped inside, and after a slight hesitation, I followed, not making a sound.

When I entered, I stopped and listened anxiously for the alarms that I was sure would go off any moment. Nothing happened. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was wrong. There really weren't any alarms set up. We were safe. For now.

I couldn't help but wonder at the lack of security in this place. Alicia shouldn't have been able to open the lock on that window with just a piece of wire. And if there were no guards, then there really shouldn't have been a window _at all._ There wasn't even an alarm! Seriously, do the people who own this place _want_ it to be robbed or something?

'Hurry _up_!' Alicia snarled at me, taking the crowbar out of the bag and weighing it in her hands. I mimicked her movements and took a moment to survey the room we were in. Over on one side monitors were displaying different parts of the warehouse on their screens. Next to the monitors, computers hummed and whirred softly as they transferred the images they were picking up from the cameras onto the monitors. A plastic cup sat beside one of the computers. This struck me as odd, though I couldn't think why. Other than that, the room was empty.

Alicia strode quickly over to the surveillance equipment and brought her crowbar down hard on top of one of the machines, creating a resounding _'crack_!' and leaving a large dent in the piece of technology. I hurried to join her.

It would be extremely bad, I thought as I smashed yet another monitor screen, if there really was a guard here and he heard us. We'd be in _big_ trouble then.

After about two minutes had passed, we'd made sure that everything in the room was nice and safely broken. I'd even cracked the cup for good measure. Always good to be thorough.

I had felt good destroying things. It was like I was letting all the anger that had built up inside me flow away through the vandalism. I'd had a hard life. I was poor. It was the very reason I was here. My parents were indescribably cruel. I went to a dumb school where everybody except Alicia had ditched me. Even the teachers had given up on me.

I didn't like breaking the law, but it really was refreshing in a strange sort of way. 'Now we grab everything we can and get the hell outta here.' Alicia told me. We walked through a door on my left and into the main building. I stopped and gasped. I couldn't help it. The room we were in was _huge_. And it was packed to the brim with expensive technology, just begging to be taken. Again my mind went back to the mysteriously missing security conditions.

'I'll take the DVDs, you get the smaller more expensive stuff. Ok?' Alicia said. I ran off to the mobile phone section and hastily started shoving all different brands and models of phones in my bag. I wasn't being careful. I just wanted to get out of here. Something wasn't right. Like, there was this tingling sensation at the back of my neck. I sort of felt like I was being watched.

As I dropped yet another phone into my sack, I noticed a telephone by the wall. The phone was off the hook. I stopped what I was doing for a moment and stared at it. A window. A cup in the security room. A telephone that looked like it had been recently used, but was in a _deserted_ warehouse. My brain worked slowly towards the conclusion. And then I had it.

God! I'd been such an _idiot!_ How could I not have realised this? The most obvious clues were right there in front of me and still I didn't notice!

I turned and sprinted towards the DVDs section. 'Alicia?' I shouted. I could hear the fear in my own voice. 'Alicia, we have to get out of here! Right now! There's a – '

A hand clamped down on my shoulder, jerking me backwards and lifting my feet right out from under me.

On the floor, I looked up to see a huge, burly figure standing over me. There was a security guard in the building. Oh, _shit._

'What the hell do you think you're doing here?!' He exclaimed in a loud angry voice. 'You're under arrest!' I tried to get up, but he put a foot on my chest and shoved me back down again. 'The police are already on the way.' He informed me. 'I called them as soon as I heard the disturbance in the security office.'

My mind seemed to have gone blank. I didn't know what to do. I suppose I could have called for Alicia, but I was sure she was the sort of person who always saved herself instead of others. Besides, there was no point getting her arrested as well.

As these thoughts went through my brain, I registered a sound from outside. The wailing of sirens.

Why did I do this? Why couldn't I have just earned the money legally? But I already knew the answer to that. Alicia. She had influenced me into doing things I didn't want to do. She really had been just bad news from the start.

'You hear that, girl?' The guard asked me. 'They're nearly here, so we'll have to find your little friend before you leave.' He knew about Alicia. He must've heard us talking before. I didn't answer. 'Do you know where she is?' The guard went on. 'Why don't you tell m – '

He cut off abruptly, a glazed, vacant expression on his face. He let out a tiny 'oh' and then slowly, so slowly it was almost as if in slow motion, he fell forward onto the hard concrete floor. I blinked, confused. Then I saw Alicia standing in front of me, wearing an expression remarkably similar to the guard's. I stood up, rubbing my chest. 'Thanks,' I said to her gratefully. 'Now let's go before the police...' I trailed off as a saw the lethal-looking knife clutched tightly in her hand. It was dripping with a bright red substance. I stared at it, and then looked down at the man lying motionless between us. There was a dark red rose of blood spreading slowly across his jacket from the middle of his back.

I took a step back from Alicia, horrified. 'What have you done?' I whispered. She still seemed dazed, in a trance. 'You – You stabbed him! You stabbed an innocent man, Alicia!' Alicia came back to herself. 'I did it for you!' She snapped. 'What else was I supposed to do?'

The sirens were a lot louder now. 'Come on!' Alicia hissed at me. 'Before the police arrive!'

'No! We can't just leave him to die!' I frantically dropped to my knees beside the guard and searched through the blood for the wound.

'Whatever! I'm going! You stay if you want, but I'm not risking my neck for some stranger!' Alicia threw down the bloody knife and raced for the door just as it was slammed open on its hinges and three police officers stepped inside, holding torches high. I could see the red and blue flashing lights of the police cruiser behind them.

'Come out with your hands up!' The woman in front called out. 'You're under arrest!' They actually said that? I thought it only happened in movies.

Alicia instantly burst into tears, hiding her face in her hands. 'It was her!' She shrieked. 'She did it! She made me come here! She said if I didn't then she'd stab me and all my family, just like she stabbed the guard!' Alicia pointed an accusing finger at me where I was still kneeling with the guard. I stared at her.

One of the policemen pulled out a radio and spoke quietly into it, presumably calling paramedics. Recognising that there was nothing I could do, I got up and moved slowly towards that police.

An officer quickly clapped handcuffs onto Alicia's arms, speaking quietly to her. I put my hands up in surrender and as I stepped into the torchlight I saw that they were glinting bright red with blood.

Two police officers moved towards me and instinctively I moved backwards, before stopping myself. Normally if I got into a situation like this then my plan of action would be fight or flight. But if I did that then I would be in even deeper crap then I already was. So I let them come at me. A moment later my arms had been jerked behind me and twisted up on my back. I was completely helpless. I _hated_ that.

Why did I do this? I knew I shouldn't have, I knew it was wrong and I didn't even want to do it. But I did do it.

And it had all gone wrong.

'**Come out with your hands up, you are under arrest.' And **_**that's **_**not the most clichéd line in history or anything... sorry, but I've never actually been in one of these situations and don't plan on getting in one, so most of the information for the arrest came from movies lol. And I looked it up on the web and they **_**do**_** actually say that.**

**Anyways, you like or you don't like? Review please :)**


	2. Chapter 2 The Arsonist

**Again, this is probably very OOC. And just so you know, Iggy isn't blind in this fic. I tried, but it got too hard...**

**Iggy POV**

Ok, so here's the deal: I am _not_ the best role model in the world. If I was then I would probably be helping my little bro with his homework or something. Not teaching him how to blow up cars.

But that was just me. I had never been one to follow the rules, and I wasn't about to start listening now.

'Are the bombs in place?' I whispered to Gazzy where he was crouched behind a couple of bins, his bright blue eyes wide with excitement. He nodded.

'Good.' I turned back to the cars displayed in front of me, in the car park outside the general store. In a couple of moments, those cars would resemble nothing more than ash. I was twitching with nerves, as always when playing with fire. I was a complete pyromaniac, a trait I shared with my eleven year old brother, Gazzy. Unfortunately, my nine year old sister Angel was not as big on the whole explosion thing. Pity.

Behind us, four of my friends were waiting to see the show, as they always did when something was about to go '_bang'._ Sometimes I think it's the only reason they hang out with me at all. But the bangs _are_ very entertaining, so I forgive them for being just followers and nothing more. Kidding. I don't understand why they don't just ditch me. I might prefer it that way.

I focused back on the cars, and made sure that nobody was in the danger zone. I don't want anybody to get hurt, whatever you believe. Me and Gaz had placed an explosive under each of the five cars in the car park, all of them packed full of nitro-glycerine and gunpowder. _Very_ explosive. There was enough power in those bombs to blow up a house. Not that we _would _blow up a house.

Don't ask me why we were blowing vehicles. Let's just say I have serious thrill issues and a very... _rebellious _attitude.

All we had to do now was light the fuse. I could hardly wait.

It was night time and the store was going to close in twenty minutes so we had to act fast. I'm pretty sure that my parents have no idea where we are at the moment. A very usual occurrence.

I turned to Gazzy and grinned at him. 'You ready, little pyro?' He grinned back.

'Yeah! Let's do it!'

That dude was like a mini me.

It was a hot, dry night here in Phoenix, so the old jeans that we were using as our fuse should catch the flame easily. I hope mum didn't notice that one of her pairs of pants had gone suddenly 'missing'. Never to be found again.

I took a stolen lighter out of my pocket and flicked it open, gazing at the flickering flame for a moment.

'Do it!' Gazzy urged. He was just as eager as I was to see those Toyotas go up in flame.

I lowered the fire to the end of the fuse where it was lying by my feet. We were about 50m away from the cars, so we were sufficiently out of range. And it was a very long fuse.

As I suspected, the strip of fabric caught instantly and the fire raced away towards the vehicles. I watched in fascination as the flickering, burning flame got closer to the nearest car. I waited for ignition.

..._BOOM! _The first car disappeared in a burning envelope of fire. The lit fuse continued onto the next car and then the next, until all that was left in the car park was scrap metal. An eerie silence replaced the bangs of cars catching on fire.

My grin widened in delight as I saw the result of our... mischief. 'That was _awesome!_' I yelled, jumping up. 'It was even better than the time I set the classroom alight!' Yes, I have indeed set a classroom on fire. But I _did_ make sure that it was empty first. I'm not _that_ irresponsible.

'A solid fifteen out of ten.' Said Gazzy happily, hopping up besides me.

Behind us, my 'friends' cheered wildly and ran out of their hiding place to inspect the remnants of the vehicles.

I turned my attention to the general store, waiting. After all, that explosion wasn't the quietest thing I've ever heard; people were bound to react. A man rushed out of the store and let out a loud wail as he saw what had become of his car. Hmm. For some reason, I don't feel very guilty. I guess I just want people to know what it feels like to go through what _I'm_ going through. No, I haven't had my car blown up (I've never even owned a car), but I _do _know what it feels like, to have nothing in life. Did I tell you that I was adopted? I lived on my own for four years before Gazzy and Angel's family decided to take me in, living for myself, surviving on my own. And my 'parents' aren't exactly stellar. I'm just giving people a _taste _of my pain.

I walked out to survey the damage myself, Gazzy trailing behind me like a lost puppy. More people poured out of the shop and let out cries of rage when they saw what we'd done. I wasn't worried about being seen. I was well known for my pyromaniac activity in this area. I had a _long_ arson record, let me tell you. It wouldn't hurt if people knew who had committed _this _crime.

I recognised one of the witnesses as one of my dad's work colleagues. He often visited our house for dinner. He was a stuck up snob who cared about nothing but money. I hoped that one of the now non-existent cars was his.

'Yo, Iggy!' Scott, one of my followers (I now refuse to call them friends) beckoned me over to one of the cars. I walked casually towards him as onlookers spotted me and started cursing loudly in my direction. I ignored them. I got it a lot.

I bent down to examine the piece of twisted metal he was pointing at. It was a little badge. On it were the words written '_Phil Gordon. Phoenix Mayor' _just visible. Uh-oh. I think I just set fire to the mayor's car. This could _not _have good consequences. But how could I have known it was the mayor's? It was a normal black Ford! Nothing special about it! And what's it doing just _here_, right out in the open? It just didn't make sense. Unless, the mayor was just doing a regular check up to the store or something. That's possible, right?

'Crap.' Was all I managed. The others gathered around me and their eyes widened as they realised what we'd done.

'Do you think we should run?' Hayley, another follower, asked anxiously. She was the only girl there. I nodded.

'Let's run like hell. The police will already be on the way.' I told them. They were all too eager to get out of here, since the people who were by the shop had started to approach us, murderous expressions on their faces. Somehow, those expressions were a lot more intimidating now the severity of the crime had been upped a level. A couple of them had mobile phones beside their ears, no doubt summoning the cops. Within moments Scott, Hayley and the others were nowhere to be seen. Only Gazzy and I were left at the scene of the crime. I saw a police cruiser round the corner and swore loudly. I didn't know if I could escape. This was the worst thing I'd done in a long time. I don't think I would just get a warning and be let off, like I had the other times.

I quickly knelt down to my little brother's level and looked him in the eye. Those eyes, once bright and wide with excitement, now showed fear, but also determination. Yeah, that's my brother, he wasn't a coward, unlike the others. 'Listen, Gazzy.' I told him. 'I want you to run home as fast as you can. Don't stop or you'll get caught. Tell mum and dad that I'll be back later. Ok?' He nodded and I smiled. 'Thanks.' I actually had affection for Gazzy and Angel, unlike my parents. They were sweet little kids, I really didn't want one of them to have a criminal record at just eleven.

Gazzy took off down the street, disappearing within seconds in a cloud of dust. The police vehicle was almost upon me now, but I had no intention of being caught and so I turned and looked around at the surrounding area, desperately scanning for an escape route. The police parked their car and stepped outside it, making their way towards me. I noticed a tight alleyway nearby me and raced towards it, hoping to make it there before the cops did.

I did make it, narrowly. They chased me down there, but I _am _fast. I doubted that they would give much of a chase. There were more than enough witnesses to tell them what had happened. I would be in deep crap sooner or later, no doubt. But I didn't want to make it _too _easy for them to catch me. It's just not very sporting, you know?

Forty minutes later, I was fairly sure that I could go home. I'd only heard the police behind me a couple of times, ages ago. They'd probably gone back to the store to collect info from the people who were there.

I made my way towards my home tiredly. I wasn't really worn out physically (I was very athletic), but I'd had enough for today. I mean, people come home exhausted emotionally all the time, but _they_ don't get chased by cops, do they? So yes, I am exhausted.

My house was in view now and I quickened my pace to reach it faster. I would probably be paranoid about going into plain view for a couple of weeks now. Lucky me.

I didn't understand why I was reacting this way. It was as if I _knew_ I was going to get caught. It had never been like this with any of my _other_ arson projects. And there are _a lot _of those.

I climbed into my room through my window through the high tree right next to it. There is _no _way I was going in through the front door. Then my parents would know I was home, and they would _not _be happy.

I jumped from one of the branches on the tree into my bedroom with a light thud. Way too light for anybody to hear me... or so I thought.

A couple of moments after I landed a screech drifted up to my ears. 'JAMES! Down here, NOW!' Ok, so maybe my intro wasn't as quiet as I thought. And if I was right, my mother knew that something was up. Besides me being out way later than I was supposed to I mean. Yes, my real name is James. But everyone (except my mum) called me Iggy.

I heaved a sigh and headed downstairs, then froze with shock. In the living room, glaring at me with fierce expressions, were my mum, dad, the colleague of my dad's who had been at the explosion when it happened and... Two police men. This was not cool.

They turned to the colleague of dad's. Howard, I think his name was. 'Is that him, sir?' One asked him.

He nodded, without taking his glare from me. I considered running, but there was really no point. This was my home after all, and I would have to come back here eventually, unless I decided to ditch this place for good. And then they would get me.

The police officers turned back to me. 'You do realise that you destroyed the mayor's car, don't you?' One asked. 'And four other cars as well?' I nodded slowly. I wasn't about to deny it.

'We believe that you used nitro-glycerine and gun powder in your explosives.' Said the other, consulting his notes. 'Both of those substances are illegal for you to handle, as you do not have a licence.'

My mum and dad hadn't said a word. They were just glaring at me.

'I think we have enough evidence to take you into custody for now.' Said the first police officer with a note of finality. 'You are officially under arrest.' Well this totally sucked. Mum and dad didn't even look the littlest bit sad! Dad actually nodded. I mean, I know that I'm adopted, but they could at least _treat _me like a real son. I'm now wondering why they took me in the first place if they had no actual feeling for me.

What were my younger siblings going to do if I'm in jail? They weren't really that fond of our parents, to say the least. I would definitely miss them, but I had no choice in the matter.

I saw both Gazzy and Angel at the top of the stairs, taking in the scene with scared eyes and trembling lips. Angel looked so much like her brother. They knew exactly what was going on. This was total crap.

I wish I hadn't done this now. I wish I had never blown up the cars at all.

**I need plans for what to do with Fang and Nudge... I do have ideas, but they're only ideas so far. And I would **_**prefer**_** to have non-violence :)**


	3. Chapter 3 The Hacker

**Hey everybody :) **

**Just remember, Nudge is sixteen as well in this fic. I would have made her younger, but according to mum, the youngest age you can go into a correction centre is sixteen, so that's what she gets to be :) I should have done my research... And, as usual, the likely OOCness.**

**Disclaimer ('cause I forgot to do one again...): I don't own Maximum Ride, sadly enough. Believe me, I know from my many past attempts to get it that I don't. And I suppose I have to give **_**some **_**credit to Anthony Horowitz for **_**part **_**of the plot for the first chapter... But the rest is mine!! All mine!! If any of you try to steal it... -_-**

**Nudge POV**

'Monique! Come here, quickly!' I turned away from my conversation with my friend Casey to see who had called my name. It was twenty minutes after school had finished and I was currently wearing out my poor feet by making my way home by foot.

When I saw who had called me, I frowned. It was mum and dad, leaning out the car window, and they never picked me up. Like, _never._

They called again.

I turned to Casey. 'Look, Case, I have to go okay? I'll catch up with you tomorrow and then we can decide whether we should buy those shoes we saw at the shops or – '

'Nudge!' Casey interrupted me and grinned. 'I get it, just go.' I waved at her and turned to run to my parents, who looked even more impatient than before.

Everybody called me Nudge. Even most of my teachers, because apparently that was what it took to shut me up. But that wasn't true. Most of the time you had to totally shove me or put a hand over my mouth to quiet me. But my friends and I decided I would be called Nudge, because really? Hand Over Mouth? What sort of nickname is _that?_

As soon as I slipped into the back seat my dad stomped down on the pedal and we tore away down the street, leaving Casey to eat our dust.

'Hey, what's going on?' I asked as we turned the corner, heading towards home. 'Why have you picked me up? I mean, it's nice and everything, but I _always _walk home, you've not picked me up once since I started high school so it's a bit weird, and why are we driving so fast, you _must _be going over the speed limit because – '

'Monique,' my mum said before I could really get going, 'you know how you're good with computers?'

It was true that I was a bit of a computer geek. What can I say? Cars and computers are my two main obsessions. Well, them and shopping. Hacking was my speciality, I'd sometimes (only _sometimes_) cheated on tests that I'd forgotten to study for by hacking into the school database and finding the answers.

I nodded. 'Yeah. What about that? I mean, I know that – ' I was cut off for the third time in about five minutes by dad. Jeez. What is with these people? Can't they let me get one freaking sentence out?

'Monique, we need you to find some files for us on the computer. They're supposed to be only for government officials to view, but we really need them, so we want your help.' He said.

'But that's illegal isn't it?' I asked, startled. 'If it's only for people in the government to see, then why do you need to? What's the file about anyway?'

My parents exchanged an exasperated glance before mum turned back to me. We'd almost reached our home by now.

'We think,' said mumhh slowly, 'that the U.S Government may be planning a second war against Iraq. They think that they're building more weapons of mass destruction to get back at America for invading them in the first place. We want to see if that's true, and if it is then we want to expose it and stop it.'

'Oh.' I said. 'Oh! Well... I guess I could do it... I mean, I don't want another war...' I had a lot of political opinions and I was pretty famous at my school for speaking out against things animal testing and the war against Iraqis.

'But do you actually think I'll be able to get in?' I asked, biting my lip in anxiety. 'I mean, it's the _U.S government. _They're nothing if not paranoid. What if we get caught? We'll be sent to jail won't we?' I saw my brown eyes wide with worry in the rear view mirror as we turned into the driveway.

'Monique, it'll be okay.' Mum said reassuringly as we left the car and headed towards the door. 'If we get caught then me and dad will take the blame and you'll get let off. Alright, honey?'

I nodded but I wasn't convinced. Not really.

'We should be able to reach the info we want from the computer in our house.' Dad told me. 'We've been looking into this for weeks, we think that with some help from us you should be able to hack the system within half an hour.'

As I thought about the implications of doing this, I started to sweat. I'd never done anything this serious before. I mean, sure, I've done a bit of underage drinking without my parents' permission, and I might gone over the speed limit once or twice when working for my license, but I'm not a criminal. I had no idea that my parents were either. How could they be so sure that there was going to be a war in Iraq anyway? It sounded as if they had no proof, and I thought that _Bush _was the one involved in that war, not _Obama._ I didn't think they had enough evidence to be doing this...

'Monique, sweetie, you okay?' My mum asked me as we through the door into the cool shade of the house. 'You don't _have _to do this, you know.' My dad shot mum a look. Obviously they felt differently on this matter. Dad had always been the passionate one, the one that stirred crowds into action, made them believe what he said, which was one way that I took after him, whereas mum was a more passive person who knew how to forgive a mistake or twelve. Dad would do anything to stop this war from happening (_if_ it was underway) including forcing me to do things I was reluctant about. I smiled weakly.

'No, mum, I'm fine, really.' I said, sounding not the least bit convincing. But I needed to do this. I know that my parents would _never _do this if they didn't believe it was the right thing to do. So I would help them. We could hope that we didn't get caught.

I sat down at the computer we were now standing by, and logged onto my account, where it took a few moments to load. Dad twitched at my shoulder the entire time.

'Okay.' He said. I noticed that he was speaking in a whisper even though there was nobody around to overhear him. It betrayed how nervous he really was. 'I want you to go onto the government's website and then...' My dad continued with his whispered instructions, with my mum occasionally adding something if he forgot and I followed their orders to the letter. However, as we got deeper and deeper into the website, towards the bits that only people in government should be able to access my parents were becoming less certain of themselves and I was taking more initiative.

Finally, I could tell that we were on a database that the public had no access to. We had officially hacked into the government's secret files. Wow. That was easier than I had thought. Didn't they have some sort of suspicion that _everyone _was trying to find out what they were up to? Why were there so little precautions against hackers? Against the sort of thing that _we _were doing at this very moment? Why was a _schoolgirl _able to break into top secret files without being caught? If we got away with this, then our government were complete _idiots._

'We're in,' I breathed, 'now all we have to do is find any incriminating data.'

'Start searching.' Dad said, his eyes fixed on the computer, leaning so far over my shoulder that his nose was almost touching the screen.

'Brilliant work, honey,' mum smiled at me. I smiled back, happy and hugely relieved that I had successfully completed my task without being taken to jail. I had no more needed part in this operation. I could just go back to school and get on with life. Huh. Who knew that the thought of going to school would be able to fill me with _joy? _

I turned back to the monitor just in time to see it completely shut down. The screen was completely blank. Black. Nothing.

I sat back, totally bewildered by this turn of events. What the hell was going on? Beside me, my parents faces were also ones of shock.

I looked back at the screen and I saw that there had been activity. Where complete blankness had been before, now large white block letters filled up the space.

_YOU ARE USING AN UNAUTHORISED PERSONAL COMPUTER AND ACCOUNT TO ACCESS HIGHLY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. THIS IS A FEDERAL OFFENCE. YOUR WHEREABOUTS HAVE BEEN LOCATED AND POLICE HAVE BEEN ALERTED AND ARE CURRENTLY APPROACHING YOUR LOCATION._

I stared at the writing, trying to take it in, but unable to focus. I felt like swearing. My dad did swear. How could this have happened? My parents were so sure we were safe! We didn't even find out if the theories about the war against Iraq were true or not! That was just unfair, we should at least have _some_ data for all our (_my_) hard work!

How did they know where to find us? Was the government more technologically funded then we knew? Almost certainly.

Dad swore again, gripping the back of my chair so hard that his knuckles went white. He groaned. 'How could this happen? We were so sure they had nothing like this...' _Yeah, way to screw up, Dad_. I thought bitterly. _Now we're all going to prison._

Mum grabbed my arm. 'Monique.' She said. 'Nudge. You need to get out of here, sweetheart. The cops won't know you had anything to do with it, you can still escape. We can't let you take the blame.' I shook my head frantically, tears starting to form at the corner of my eyes as I finally realised what was happening.

'Nuh-uh. I'm staying with you.'

'Don't you _dare _argue with me, young lady.'

'Mum, I can't just _go_. I'm not going to let you get taken to jail if I don't go as well! I was just as much a part of this as you were.'

'Sweetie, please.' Dad said, trying to pull me to the door. 'You have no need to be a part of this.'

'Yes, I do!' I near shouted, straining against his arms. 'I didn't have to do this, you said so yourself! This wouldn't have happened if I agreed!' I could see that neither of my parents were swayed by my arguments. Dad continued to tug me to the door.

'At least try to escape with me!' I pleaded.

'Monique, we're not the youngest people in the world. We would be captured before we'd gone further than two blocks. There's no point.' Mum said gently.

'But where will I go?' I asked, tears starting to spill down my face. 'If you're in jail then I won't have anywhere to go! I'll be out on the street and I'll have to get my own food and people will try to rob me and – '

'Monique!' Dad said. 'You're wasting time the cops will be here any moment! Stay with Casey or your friend Abigail, I'm sure they'd be happy to take you in, but please, just get out of here.'

I think I was going to start a flood, the amount of tears I was shedding. But after a long strained moment, I nodded reluctantly, trying not to break down more than I already had. 'O-Okay.'

'Thanks sweetie.'

I moved towards the door, unwillingly but quickly, but just as I was about to reach for the handle, the door crashed open and I was knocked back into the wall – totally winded, I couldn't make a sound – and four policemen charged in.

They spotted the words still showing on the computer screen, incriminating us, and they spotted my parents standing in the middle of the room, defiant expressions fixed on their faces, but they didn't see me.

Two of the cops moved forward and pinned my parents' arms behind their backs, pushing them up against the wall, hard.

'Ian and Megan Thomson? He asked them. Those were my parents' names. 'You are officially under arrest for suspected hacking and treason against the U.S government.'

I couldn't let this happen. This was my _mum _and _dad_ getting _arrested._ I was doing nothing to stop it. I _had _to take the blame. _Had_ to. I stayed silent for a second, before I decided my course of action.

'It was me.' I said, stepping forward off the wall. 'I did it, not them.' My voice trembled as the six people in the room turned towards me (mum and dad looking like they wanted to bang their heads on a wall for a while to escape my stupidity) but I lifted my chin as I met the stern gaze of the cop who looked to be in charge. 'Please leave my mum and dad out of this.' The lead policeman signalled and the remaining cop quickly trapped me in hand cuffs, leaving me utterly defenceless.

'Take all of them in for questioning.' The chief ordered.

I was starting to wish I'd never learnt how to hack at all.

**I'm not too sure about this chapter... the whole top secret government files thing is just so... **_**spy-ish**_**, you know? But I couldn't think of anything else, so you'll have to deal :)**

**Also, I know absolutely nothing about hacking so all I've said about it in this chapter is probably totally incorrect.**

**I am completely stuck for Fang. I think if I don't get any other ideas soon then I might have to resort to a violent crime... :/**

**Happy reviewing!**


	4. Chapter 4 The Vandalist

**I know it's been ages... I'm sorry... But I finally did Fang! He was **_**hard.**_** I know that a couple of you suggested breaking in to homes and that, but it just seemed too much like Max's crime, you know? I wanted something that wasn't really related. So, although I don't really think that this crime suits Fang, it was the best I could think of without it being like, murder or something. So enjoy :)**

**Fang POV**

I slipped down the dark alleyway, conscious of any danger that might present itself to me at eleven o'clock at night in the streets of downtown Seattle. It wasn't likely, but I wasn't about to take chances.

I could feel the backpack on my shoulders, weighing me down, but I ignored it, focusing on the space in front of me.

Why was I walking down the streets at eleven o'clock at night, you ask?

Because breaking the law is fun.

Breaking the law is a thrill.

It's exciting.

I know that crime isn't a good thing, but I've never really given a crap about things like that. Not since mum died. That was almost a year ago now.

Mum was really the one who had kept our family together. Dad and I had always found it hard to get along, and so when she fell sick with lung cancer about three years ago, things just got worse. We probably should have, I dunno, co-operated more in an effort to keep someone both of us loved alive, but it just hadn't happened.

When she finally passed away after a two year battle, I changed. I became quieter, withdrawn, I tried not to show emotion. And I turned criminal.

At first it was just little things. Stealing from shops. Truancy. But over time it got worse. I started to become violent. I joined a gang, the Immortals. Two weeks ago I tried weed for the first time. It's not something I would be repeating.

I'm not certain why I did these things. It might have been a rebellion against my father's strict code of perfectness. It might have been an escape from the pain of my mother's death, which always struck me like a bullet wound to the heart every time I thought about it. It certainly wasn't to increase my popularity. Ever since I'd turned to crime, most people at my school were too terrified to come anywhere near me. They knew the things I'd done. I didn't care.

After a time, I began to participate in more of the gang work, just for something to do. And that brings me to what I was doing out in the middle of the night with an overloaded bag on my shoulder.

I had reached the end of the alley and I glanced around once more, waiting. After a moment, I heard a voice. 'Fang!' I turned to the source of the sound and smiled with no real emotion. It was Josh, the 22 year old leader of the Immortals. He was the reason I was out tonight.

I nodded my head in response to his greeting. 'Hey.'

He reached me and glanced down at the bag. 'Do you have the stuff?'

I nodded and unzipped it, letting Josh see the contents. Inside were dozens of heavy metal objects, all taken from my house. Without my dad's knowledge.

There were crowbars, hammers, a couple of large knives and I'd even packed a candle holder. Damn it was heavy.

Josh drew out one of the knives. It's wickedly sharp tip glinted in the moonlight as he fixed me with a stern gaze. 'I thought I told you not to bring any heavy objects?' He half asked. I shrugged. Whatever.

Josh shook his head and sighed, putting the knife down once more. 'Oh well. The others will be here soon. You all clear on the plan?' I nodded again. As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of the whole word thing.

The crime that we were committing tonight was relatively simple and innocent to what my gang had been know to do in the past. I'd only been part of them for two months, but I'd been hearing stories about them my entire life. They were dangerous when they were ticked. Which was often.

However, tonight's crime was mere vandalism, nothing more. A total walk in the park.

There was sound behind me and I turned sharply to see the youngest member of our gang, Isaac, who was two months younger than me, approaching, his black hair gelled into spikes and his blue eyes wide with excitement. He had a large metal pipe clutched tightly in his hand. Behind him walked two other members, Aimee and Jesse, who completed the group that we'd collected for our 'activity'. Both of them were carrying dozens of cans of spray paint in their hands.

Josh looked around at the four of us. 'Let's go.'

We set off down the alleyway, lugging our equipment with us.

Eventually we reached our destination, the local shops, and I noticed that it had been upgraded recently. Maybe that was why Josh had chosen this spot for what we were going to do. To _down_grade it.

The white walls that were located in between each separate store were blank and free of graffiti. Several ornamental statues had been added to the small park across the road, giving it an antique look. The footpath had been repaved._ It really was quite nice, _I thought dispassionately as I surveyed the scenery around us. Pity it wouldn't be around tomorrow. We would have destroyed it.

Josh turned to face us. 'Right,' he said. 'You see those pretty little statues over there?' He pointed towards the park. 'I don't want to see them standing when I next look. The nice blank walls? Why should they be blank when there are other possibilities? You see how there's no litter anywhere? Well, that's just not right. You know what to do. Get to work.' As Aimee, Isaac, Josh and Jesse moved away to trash the place, I was struck by how cruel Josh's words had been. He – we – had no reason to vandalise this place, but we were doing it anyway. It reminded me of the way a rebellious teenager would act – me, for example – and Josh had been an adult for a relatively long time. Shouldn't he have an actual _job _or something by now?

'Fang, what are you doing?' I was shaken from my thoughts by Aimee's call, and looked over at her where she was standing by a recently beheaded sheep statue. 'Why are you just standing there?' She asked. I didn't answer, just walked over to where Isaac was efficiently covering a wall with paint and graffiti and began to help.

Isaac glanced over at me as I methodically sprayed red on the wall, making it look as if it were the scene of a crime. Well, technically it _was_ the scene of a crime, considering what was going on right now, but I'm talking about the type that included knives, guns and a whole load of blood. That sort.

'You know, I've never once seen you smile,' Isaac commented, frowning slightly. 'Don't you enjoy this stuff? You know, breaking the law?'

I shrugged, not taking my eyes off what was in front of me. 'Not really.'

'Then why are you doing it?' Isaac persisted, putting his spray can down so he could focus entirely on me.

'Because I can.' I answered shortly. I was in less of a mood to talk than normal. At that moment, I just wanted the teen to shut up and stop interrogating me. It was extremely annoying.

He seemed to take the hint of my uncommunicative reaction and lapsed into silence, getting back to work.

Two minutes later and we'd finished our handiwork. The once nice and white walls were now completely unrecognisable, a rainbow mirage of paint covering the entire thing. The rainbow-ness effect of it all didn't make it look nice mind you. It was a total mess actually. Total perfection of our requirements by Josh. I felt a tiny pang of guilt as I surveyed our work but I ignored it.

Isaac and I turned back to the main shops and I blinked in surprise. If I ever showed more emotion than that, I probably would've fainted with shock. Remember that there is such thing as exaggeration by the way.

The shops were, for lack of a better word, transformed.

None of the ornaments in the park remained standing, there was graffiti all over the footpaths and the carpark, and Aimee and Josh were currently in the progress of taking the bins that had been placed at certain points and strewing their contents all over the ground.

It was quite an effect.

As I watched, Aimee and Josh finished their littering and strode over to where Isaac and I were standing, satisfied smiles on their faces. Jesse strolled over casually. 'That was fun.' He said, grinning. I couldn't help but completely disagree. What had gone on here... well, there was no other way to say it. It was just _wrong._

Josh clapped his hands together. 'Right, people,' he said, 'we're done here. Scat.' He walked off towards a nearby street, the others trailing behind like lost puppies. He was obviously very pleased with the tonight's results. I felt nothing but disgust for him, and the others too. We were all cowards really. Running away from our problems in life and ending up in crime. It would get us absolutely nowhere in life.

I shook my head and followed my gang's retreating backs, while trying to come up with a sufficient answer as to why I had done so much illegal stuff in the past year. I came up blank.

Now I was feeling not only disgust for Josh, Aimee, Jesse and Isaac, but myself too. I'd been a total idiot. I think it was time to quit the gang. Maybe even crime altogether.

Suddenly I heard shouting from ahead and my head jerked up sharply. My gang were yelling at each other, apparently panicking. I glanced around, searching for the source of the commotion. I located it instantly. We were completely surrounded by police cars. Completely surrounded. What the hell? How had this even happened? Surely we would have heard them, unless they'd been here the entire tim. And how had they known to come? No alarms had been set off, nobody had been a witness to call the police, but they'd come anyway. Why?

And then I understood. This must have been a set up. The police must have been waiting for us the entire time. The Immortals were a very well known gang and they were much sought after by the police. The cops must have set up this entire thing, this entire upgrade, just to catch some of us. They knew that it would come to the attention of our leader, such a nice pretty place, just waiting to be demolished, and so that had used that as a rouse. They knew that we would come to destroy it. Our police were smarter than we gave them credit for. Maybe we should lay off the donut jokes.

I could see several police officers stepping out of the cars and moving towards us at a run, obviously confident that they would be able to get us before we reached the street that would let us get out of here. It was the only one that the cops hadn't covered, a security lack on their part.

Josh broke into a run as did Jesse, Isaac and Aimee and it was clear that they were going to make the street and get away. They were much faster than the cops. But I was a good twenty metres or more behind them and I was still walking. I had no chance.

I sprinted anyway, but they fell on me like bees to their honey, bringing me to my knees within seconds. I felt my arms being tugged up behind my back and realised what was going to happen to me. I was being arrested. There was no way I would be able to escape juvy this time. I already had a mile long record. They would send me there before I was even judged, I bet. I struggled against my bonds, desperate to get away, but I quickly silenced by a slap to the face. It was futile to resist, that slap told me.

Becoming a criminal was a stupid idea. I still have no idea why I did it in the first place. I know that mum wouldn't have wanted me to join crime, she would have been horrified. I wish that I never did this in the first place. But it was too late now.

**As always, reviews are loved :) I would really love to know what you thought of this chapter, I'm not sure if I got it right... :)**

**Oh, and the character Isaac is based on my older brother, by the way. He decided that he wanted to be put in one of my stories and so he gets a part in this one. Just FYI :)**


	5. Chapter 5 The Sentences

**The crimes are done! Yayz! Time to move on! Whoo! :) Who's read FANG: A Maximum Ride Adventure? I have! Soooo good! :D**

**So onwards!**

**Max POV**

I sat slumped in my cell, my head clutched tightly in my hands. I still couldn't believe this was happening. It was totally... surreal. I mean, I never wanted to get into crime, but I've never really been totally _against _it either. It was just something that... happened. Going to the warehouse I mean. I never planned to do anything like that. Really.

As I thought of the warehouse, I remembered that poor guard who Alicia had stabbed and my hands tightened in anger. I couldn't _believe _that Alicia would blame me like that! I felt unreasonably betrayed for some reason. I mean, I already knew that Alicia was a backstabbing little whiner (I would use stronger words but...) and I knew that she hadn't really liked me, that she'd just wanted more followers, and yet it still hurt.

The warehouse had been two days ago now, and I hadn't seen Alicia since. Well, good. I had no desire to see her, knowing that I wouldn't be able to hold myself back from attacking her. Yeah, I know, I've probably got anger management issues. But that's just me. Get over it.

In the two days that I'd been here, I'd been put through all sorts of tests. Detectives had interviewed me – I hadn't given them very good answers. They weren't very happy with me – psychiatrists had asked me all sorts of weird questions that had no relevance to crime and I'd even had all sorts of doctors give me different check-ups, which was weird. I wasn't sick. I'd been given tonnes of IQ tests that I'm pretty sure I'd failed and I saw my parents once, very briefly (we didn't say a word to each other), but apart from all these things, I'd been totally left alone.

I still had no idea what was going to happen to me. Actually, that's a lie. I was pretty sure that I was going to be taken to a detention centre or something similar, but there was no way to be certain.

My bars rattled and my head jerked up to see an officer standing at the door bringing out the keys that hung at his belt and fitting one into the lock in front of him.

'What's happening?' I asked. My voice was hoarse with the lack of use.

'You're being sentenced.' The policeman told me unsmiling. 'It's gonna be Gold Creek for you.'

My eyebrows went down in a frown as I attempted to figure out his words. He stepped into my cell and took me by the arm, dragging me out roughly. We walked through the small station and outside, where the police cruiser was waiting for us.

When inside the car, the officer turned to me. 'You'll be quiet when we get there.' He ordered me. 'Okay.' I nodded stiffly and then swallowed.

'Uh – what happened to the guard?' I asked, dreading the response. 'He didn't die did he?'

The officer looked at me steadily for a few moments before answering. 'No. He's in ICU right now. He woke up yesterday.'

I nodded, relieved, and turned to stare out the window silently. Outside I could see trees and bushes flashing past, people walking their dogs along the footpath, teenagers hanging around outside the local shops. I felt a pang of longing as I saw the kids. _Why couldn't I have a life like them?_ I thought as the passed out of sight. Without a care in the world. Would've been nice. But no.

The ride took about twenty minutes and when we got there I could feel my nerves starting to mount again, making me jumpy and pale.

The police officer opened my door for me and I stepped out, glancing around. It was a normal-looking street and the building I was standing in front of was average enough. It wasn't a court like I expected, it just liked like a normal building, one of the ones that had a tonne of offices inside it.

A felt a hand on my back, pushing me forward, and it took all my willpower not to snap right then and there and turn and punch the cop in the face. I was... well, I was kinda twitchy about people touching me. Alright, _very _twitchy. Paranoia, right? Yeah. Another thing to add to my perfect profile.

We entered the building and took an elevator up to the room where I was apparently going to be sentenced. Joy of joys.

It was a normal room, with a desk in the middle that had three people seated at it. The cop quietly closed the door behind him and stood in front of it with his arms crossed. I looked back at the others in the room and my eyes narrowed as I recognised two of them. My parents. What were _they _doing here? It wasn't as if they actually _cared _about what happened to me. If they did, then they'd never shown it.

There was a spare chair at the desk, and I took it now, purposefully avoiding the hard gaze of my parents. Instead I turned my attention to the other woman in the room. I didn't know her, but the name tag on her suit told me that she was 'Magistrate Pilson'. She was looking at me calmly through elegant glasses and when I saw her eyes, I knew I was going to have no mercy. Well, I hadn't expected any anyway.

'Miss Maximum Ride?' She asked me, her eyebrows raised slightly. Probably at my... _unusual _name.

I nodded warily. 'Yeah. That's me.'

The magistrate looked down at her notes and then back up at me. 'You have been accused of robbery and the assault of Mark Adams, Miss Ride.' She told me. My eyes narrowed and my temper flared. 'I didn't stab the guard.' I said, amazed at my steady voice. 'Alicia did.'

Magistrate Pilson's calm expression didn't change. 'We know.' She replied. 'The wounded guard – Mark Adams – told us that you wanted to stay.'

My eyes widened slightly. I hadn't known that he was still conscious when all the _drama _was going on.

'But as it is,' Pilson continued, 'you are still guilty of attempted robbery. You will still be punished.' I nodded slowly and glanced at my parents for the first time. Their faces could've been made of stone. They really didn't care what happened to me, did they?

I felt a wave of anger wash over me and to my horror I felt the beginnings of tears start at the corner of my eyes. I would not cry. I _never _cried.

But honestly, for once – just for _once – _couldn't my parents actually give a crap about what happened to me? They'd never cared about my upbringing, they'd never cared about my education, they'd never cared about any of my physical achievements. They treated me like I was an _accident, _like I shouldn't exist. It was so freaking _unfair._

I blinked hard and managed to get my expression straight again before anyone noticed my lapse of the typical stoic nature that was associated with me.

Pilson was speaking again. 'We believe we have found the right punishment for you.' She said briskly. I looked at her expectantly.

'Gold Creek Correctional Facility.'

**Iggy POV**

'Gold Creek Correctional Facility.'

'Huh?'

'Gold Creek Correctional Facility.' The magistrate repeated. 'It's a juvenile detention centre.'

'Oh...' I said slowly. 'Alright then.'

Dad leaned over towards the magistrate. 'So that's where he's going?'

The magistrate nodded. 'It seems like the best option for your son at this point in time, Mr Griffiths.'

'How long?' Mum asked. 'How long will he be there?' I noticed that neither my mum nor my dad spoke with any emotion in their voices, almost as if they thought that this was a _business _deal. Jerks.

The magistrate looked down at the notes in front of him. 'Depends,' he said. 'At least a year. Maybe more.'

Crap. I _really _didn't want to go. A year is a long time. Well, for me, anyway. A year without Gazzy or Angel would be bad.

'Do I have too?' I asked.

The magistrate turned to me, his face grave. 'Sorry James, but you have no choice.'

'Isn't there another way?' I argued. I turned to my parents to appeal to them – I didn't have high hopes – but both of them were slowly nodding their head in agreement with the magistrate and my heart sank as I realised what was going to happen to me.

**Nudge POV**

'No.' Mum's voice quavered and I glanced over at her where she was white-faced and gripping the desk we were sitting at so hard that her knuckles were white. 'I don't want my baby punished. She didn't do anything wrong. I don't want her going to this place.'

The old judge sighed and folded his hands in front of him, looking at the three of us seated at the desk across from him. 'Mrs Thomson, we have evidence against you, your husband _and _your daughter. She confessed to committing the crime herself and the newest fingerprints on the keyboard at your house belong to her. I'm sorry, but Monique is guilty.'

Mum opened her mouth to protest again, but I layed a hand on her shoulder to silence her. 'Mum it's okay,' I said softly. 'I think I can stand this Gold Creek place. Worry about yourself.'

She swallowed hard and looked to dad for support. He was nodding his head sadly at what I'd said. 'Let her go, honey,' he said.

Up front, the judge smiled thinly. 'Gold Creek Correctional Facility it is.' He said.

**Fang POV**

'Where is this place? This Facility?' Dad asked briskly.

My eyes narrowed in anger. Was Dad upset that his only child had turned out to be a criminal? Of course not! He'd 'seen it coming for a long time' apparently. Was he sad that I was going to be taken away to some juvy place? Ha. I highly doubt _that._

'It's in western Nevada.' The magistrate told dad. 'Near Dayton.'

Dad nodded, thinking. 'Would I be paying travel fares? He asked, frowning slightly. 'I'm not sure I could pay…' I resisted scowling with difficulty. What a martyr. All of us in the room knew full well that my father wasn't short on money.

The magistrate shook his head. 'We are willing to pay the fares.' He said.

Dad nodded. 'Well then, I believe this is an acceptable punishment for my son's crime. Crimes.' He turned in his seat to look at me. 'Don't you agree Nicolas?'

I didn't answer, just glared at him. On top of being pissed at him for his business-like dealings with the magistrate, he _knew _that I hated being called Nicolas, or even Nick. _Hated _it.

Dad nodded in a slightly sad fashion. 'I am unhappy that our relationship has led to this.' He stated. 'But so be it. You're going to Gold Creek Correctional Facility.'

**Moving on! Time for Gold Creek Correctional Facility! I said that a lot in this chapter… **

**Ok, so next chapter, Iggy and Max will **_**probably **_**be meeting. **_**Maybe **_**Nudge and Fang as well. Which I'm looking forward to :)**

**Anyways, like always reviews are loved, and the people that review are totally awesomized. You want to be awesomized, don't you?**


	6. Chapter 6 The Meeting

**Alright, so, since so many people have asked about the pairings of this story, I shall tell you :) There will be Fax (of course :P) and since I doubt I'll include Ella in this story at all (tell me if you want her or not...) and also because so many people have requested it, yeah, it's gonna be Niggy :)**

**So now that's cleared up, we can continue :D**

**Max POV**

I watched gloomily through the dirt-crusted window as the small shrubs and bushes sped by, fading quickly out of sight. I was in a bus, and I was on my way to Gold Creek Correctional Facility. Many whoops and tears of joy.

I had no idea what would happen when I got there, but to be honest, I was looking forward to arriving. No, not because I _wanted _to go to the detention centre (I would have to be totally messed in the head to want _that)_, but because I was just sick and tired of this freaking _bus._ It was so tiny that I was getting claustrophobia and the only other person in here was the driver, and _he _hadn't said a word to me since we'd started the trip. It was so boring. I'll admit that boring me isn't too hard, but honestly. Here I am, speeding through the desert in the middle of freaking _nowhere,_ on an eight hour long drive, and there is _nothing to do._ They could at least have given me a pack of _cards _or something to play with. But nooo. They shove me in here and expect me to deal. Jerks.

Oh well. According to my watch, there's only forty five minutes of the drive left, thank god. I still don't know if I can last that long.

I wondered briefly what had happened to Alicia. Had she been sent to this place as well? But then she'd be on the bus with me wouldn't she? I dunno.

I really hoped she wouldn't be at Gold Creek when I got there. I wanted absolutely nothing more to do with her.

I was shaken out of my thoughts by a loud spluttering sound and the bus jerked harshly several times. It was slowing down rapidly.

I frowned and turned away from the window to look at the driver. 'What's going on?' I asked.

He didn't answer me, merely slammed his hand against the steering wheel several times in anger. 'God dammit!' he said.

My eyebrows rose. 'Have we run out of petrol?'

The driver turned to me. 'Stay here.' He said, completely ignoring my question.

'Do I have too? I mean, there's so many things to do in a desert.' I said, sarcasm dripping. 'I'm sure I'll be tempted to run away from the only water source in a hundred kilometres...' Look, I may be rebellious, but I am _not _stupid.

The driver glared at me, but he didn't say anything, preferring to get out of his seat at the wheel and hop out of the small bus, taking a mobile phone out of his pocket as he did so.

I watched in interest as he quickly dialled in a number and waited impatiently for the dial tone.

If it were possible, then I would have hijacked the bus right then and there and booked it way east, but as it is, the bus was out of fuel and I was going nowhere. But what an idiot. I mean, who goes for a long trip and doesn't check the petrol tank first? Who doesn't even _notice _when the tank is running low?

Outside, the driver had been connected (I was surprised that he even had signal for his mobile at all) and he was snapping words into the phone, obviously irritated. There was a moment of silence as he waited for a reply, and then he said one short word and snapped the phone shut. Then he dialled another number and waited again. I looked away, no longer interested.

A couple of minutes later he stepped back into the bus and I looked at him. 'So? What's happening?' I questioned. He sat back down.

'I called the tow truck service and Gold Creek.' He said. The tow trucks are coming to pick up the bus – they'll be here in about an hour – and apparently there's another bus headed to Gold Creek as well, about twenty kilometres away. It'll pick you up.'

I nodded slowly. 'Okay then. So now we wait?'

'Yes.'

I sighed. More boredom. Brilliant.

At least the bus would only be ten minutes or so before it arrived. Then we could moving again. Twenty kays is a relatively short distance, after all.

To escape insanity, I decided to count how many second it would take for the other bus to get here.

I'm not sure how that would _help _my sanity – it might well do the opposite – but why not? Here goes. _One second, two second, three seconds, four seconds..._

Exactly seven hundred and nine seconds later, I heard a faint roaring sound and I glanced up to see a little yellow dot on the horizon, coming ever closer. Oh goody. The other bus.

I sat up straighter in my hard plastic chair and watched its approach, waiting for it to get here.

The driver had seen it too. 'I'm going to stay here and wait for the tow truck.' He told me. I nodded, his words flying right out my head. I really couldn't care less what happened to him.

The bus pulled up beside us and I stood up, eager to stretch my legs. My driver didn't move. 'Well...bye.' I said awkwardly. I moved to the front of the bus and stepped out, squinting in the hot bright sun.

Across from me, the doors to the other bus opened and I stepped inside cautiously.

There were two people inside. One was a crusty old driver with white greasy hair who hardly acknowledged my presence. The other was a boy around my age, sitting right up the back of the bus with his legs on the seat and looking bored out of his mind. I knew the feeling. The guy was obviously very tall and thin and he had straight reddish blonde hair that covered his neck. When I entered, he looked up, and piercing bright blue eyes locked directly onto my chocolate brown ones.

I moved towards him as the doors to the new bus closed and it started off down the road, leaving my original bus and driver behind.

The guy up the back sat up slightly when he saw me and I sat down beside him, looking at him with interest. He looked back. Neither of us said anything.

Finally the guy broke the silence. 'Hey.' He said. 'I'm Iggy.' He held out a hand, and after a moment, I took it.

'I'm Max.'

Iggy's eyebrows rose. 'Max? Unusual name for a girl.'

I nodded wearily. I got that a lot. 'It's short for Maximum. Maximum Ride... which is also pretty strange, I guess.' Iggy nodded.

'So you're going to Gold Creek too, right?' I asked, trying to keep up the conversation.

Iggy grimaced briefly and nodded. 'Yeah. Detention centre for me. I'm surprised I wasn't sent here sooner actually...' he snickered.

'Not on the good side of the law?' I guessed.

He nodded. 'Definitely not. Not at all.'

There was a couple of moments of silence before Iggy asked, 'So, what'd you get in for?'

I winced. Sensitive subject. 'Um, I kinda broke into a warehouse with a... with someone I know.' I said. I'd been about to call Alicia a 'friend', but I don't classify a lying backstabbing traitor as a _friend, _do you? 'We got caught.'

Iggy snorted. 'You broke into a warehouse when there was a guard around? Smart. Real smart.'

I glared at him. 'Obviously we didn't know there was a guard! I'm not _that_ stupid.'

He just shook his head.

After a while I asked, 'Well, what about you? What did you do?'

Iggy looked at me. 'Arson. I blew up the Phoenix mayor's car. And four others. I blow up a lot of cars.' Iggy grinned dreamily.

'How many cars have you blown up?' I asked. I'll admit, I was interested.

Iggy was silent for a moment as his lips moved in silent numbers. 'Almost forty.' He said at last. 'Got caught for twenty eight of 'em.'

My jaw dropped open. 'Twenty eight?! You got caught for blowing up cars _twenty eight _ times and you only got sent here for _one?'_

'Yup. The Phoenix cops always thought I was just an innocent little boy who didn't understand what would happen if he put a bomb under a car and then push the detonator and make it go boom.' Iggy snorted. 'Idiots.' I nodded in agreement. 'But then the mayor's car went up in smoke and they decided enough was enough.' He finished, shrugging.

'I wish my police would underestimate me the same way.' I said wistfully. I put on a high pitched girly voice. '"_Please sir, let me go! All I did was try to steal thousands of dollars worth of technology! What's so bad about that? I didn't know it was wrong!"' _I snorted again. 'Yeah, _right.'_ Iggy smiled.

'So, what happened with you bus?' he asked, making small talk.

I shrugged. 'Oh, the idiot of the driver decided not to refill the petrol tank before we left, so of course, we ran out. That's all.'

Iggy nodded and started to say something else, but he was interrupted by the loud screeching of tires along gravel as the bus came to a sudden halt. I looked outside, startled, and I realised what was going on. We had reached our destination.

Gold Creek Correctional Facility.

**Yes, I know, **_**very **_**short, but you can only make a bus ride go on for so long...**

**Anyways, review please :D**


	7. Chapter 7 Brigid, Ari and Nudge

**So, guess it's time for me to finally get on with this story, huh? Well, can do... Blame writer's block for the long time no update. It sucks. Badly.**

**Max POV**

Gold Creek Correctional Facility wasn't anything like I expected. I'll admit that my image of normal prisons is probably marred by the fact that I've seen so many stereotypes off the television, but this seriously surprised me. I'd always thought that correctional centres would be these huge grey-bricked buildings that had a huge wall ringing them, topped off with a metre of barbed wire. For some reason they always seemed to have a big swelling thundercloud overhead as well. Go figure.

But this was totally different. Not only was there not a single cloud in sight (well, we _are _in the middle of a Nevadan desert...), but the building was basically the complete opposite of what I'd thought I'd see. It was a dull yellow colour and a whole lot smaller than I thought it would be as well. I mean, it wasn't some _cottage, _but I doubt it would hold over two hundred people. Maybe they only took certain people that were serious enough to go here. I suppose I fit the bill. And don't I feel _special._ In fact, the only thing that I was right about being there was the wall. Just, there was no, you know, barbed wire on top of it.

I stood up without taking my eye off the place and I felt Iggy rise beside me, his eyes also locked on the building in front of us. 'So...' He said. 'This is our new "home", huh?'

I nodded. 'Guess so.'

The driver opened the doors of the bus for us and all three of us stepped out into the uncomfortable heat of midday.

As we walked towards gold Creek Correctional Facility, I looked around with natural curiosity, and I noted with interest that there were no guards in sight. Well that was kinda strange. Did they think that us 'prisoners' were too low profile to need security? Hah. In that case, I would be outta here before the week's end. And yeah, I _am _planning on breaking out. I don't want to stay here for... what was my sentence again? A year? Well yeah, no way am I staying that long.

We entered the building and I breathed a small sigh of relief as we were assaulted by dozens of air conditioners positioned around the room. _That's better..._

I looked around the room and saw three people in the middle and my eyebrows rose. One was a man seated at a desk with dozens of files in front of him, and he didn't look up as we walked in, too intent on reading whatever was in front of him. From what I could see of him, I noted that he had greying brown hair and tanned, wrinkled skin, withered from age and heat. He was on the, uh... _large_ side, but most of his bulk was hidden by the desk.

At his back stood another man who was in considerably better shape. He looked to be in his early twenties, and he was possibly the buffest man I've ever seen. Seriously, his arms were like, the size of watermelons! ...Maybe a little smaller. But it gets the point across just fine. He hadwary blue eyes that, unlike the other man, were trained on us as soon as we came into view and short curly brown hair.

Finally, hovering beside the desk with a clipboard held in her hands was a pretty young woman about twenty years old who had red hair that curled down her back stylishly. I winced. To be a redhead out in the desert would guarantee a crapload of freckles within two years. She looked up at us with big hazel eyes and tapped the older man on the shoulder with a manicured nail. 'Sir...' She said. 'New arrivals.'

The man looked up and I saw that his face was just an average face, albeit aged, which wasn't what I thought I would see. Aren't these prison runner types supposed to be all tough and battle aged with a tonne of scars to show off or something? But there was no scar running across his eye or anything. Just, you know... plain skin. Totally normal. 'Which ones are these?' He asked. I frowned and glanced at Iggy. This guy was presumably the head of this place. Shouldn't he be better informed?

The man flicked his hand at the redheaded woman and she glanced down at her clipboard before looking back up at us. 'Maximum Ride, burglar, and James Griffiths, arsonist, sir.' She told him. 'They've got the cells twenty five and thirty six.' I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't considered the possibility that "Iggy" could be a nickname.

'Single cell?' The man inquired. The younger man beside him still hadn't moved an inch.

'No. They both have cell mates that'll be arriving later on today.' Cell mates. It was like a sick version of _room_mates.

The older man nodded slowly and turned his full attention to us. He attempted a smile, but I had to keep from grimacing at the result. _Keep your mouth shut, man. Nobody wants to see those teeth. Or lack of them._

'I'm Allen Stevens, the director of Gold Creek Correctional Facility.' He said to us. 'My assistant here, Brigid Dwyer,' – he pointed at the redhead – 'will show you to your respective cells and explain the rules of the Facility on the way. Is that okay?' I nodded slowly and glanced at the woman, Brigid. She didn't look too hard to beat. Maybe I could make a break for it on the way to my _cell..._

Stevens seemed to know what I was thinking, because he raised an eyebrow and continued, 'My chief of guards, Ari Batchelder, will also accompany you on the way. Just so that you don't get any... ideas.'

Dammit. The man behind Stevens leered at me and Iggy and I felt my heart sink as I realised that he must be Ari Batchelder. No way was I getting past _him._ He'd flatten me into the floor before I'd gone two steps. I'd be a _pancake._ Flat. Roadkill.

Brigid beckoned to us and we walked through to the main building, Ari following us like some twisted version of a guard of honour. I was mentally beating myself up, thinking yet again about what I had gotten myself into. I was stuck here for twelve months or more. I'd be here for like, every holiday in the year. Puts a little bit of a damper on the celebrations, I reckon.

As we walked down numerous halls and corridors filled with jail cells (none of them containing anything, strangely) Brigid looked at us. 'Right.' She said. 'Rules.' I rolled my eyes. She was so _official. _Didn't she ever have _any _fun? 'During your term here at Gold Creek Correctional Facility, you will be held in the cells twenty five and thirty six. You will be given a strip search when you reach your cell,' she told us. Whoa. _Strip search? _But didn't that mean that we'd have to...? Ew. Just ew.

I noticed that Iggy was also looking a little uncomfortable with the procedures, but either Brigid had seen our reactions before and she was ignoring it, or she was oblivious. She just continued on, seeming unaware of our discomfort. 'You both have cell mates, who you will be meeting later on today and you have mealtimes in the mess hall three times a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. You are expected to co-operate with the guards stationed at certain points in the Facility, or the consequences are... unpleasant.'

I glanced around at Ari and he grinned at me, baring teeth that unnaturally sharp, as if he had filed them down to razor points deliberately. It gave him the appearance of a shark. Or a wolf.

'You wanna run, _Miss _Ride?' He sneered. 'Try it. I have the best guards in the state. And plus, we're surrounded by kilometres of desert. You'll die before you get out.' I swallowed and had to bite back dozens of retorts that sprang to mind. For some reason I have the feeling it might not be the best idea to piss off someone like Ari. He was unstable.

Brigid gave him a sharp look and snapped, 'Ari! Behave! You know not to frighten the prisoners!' She glared sternly at him and he scowled but didn't object to being treated like he was twelve years old. Interesting. She turned back to us. 'As I was saying before I was interrupted, every day you are allowed an hour outside for exercise. You will be searched once a day for concealed weapons. Do you understand?' She looked at us inquiringly, and after glancing at Iggy for a moment I nodded slowly. I guess the security here was higher than I thought.

Brigid began talking again and I resisted a sigh. Couldn't she just _shut up?_ I wasn't liking her very much so far. Far too official. 'So anyway, we're a prison, but part of our aim also is to help our residents fix their ways and help them become better people who can excel at life!' Ugh, she sounded just like one of those annoying ads that try to point out everything good in a completely crappy arrangement. The ones on the television that make you want to throw a shoe at the screen to get it to be quiet. 'Every afternoon each person has a session with an appointed psychiatrist who attempts to help them out of their criminal ways.'

Iggy glanced at me in silent amusement and I knew instantly that no amount of therapy would ever cure him of his love of fire. Sorry, psychiatrists.

'Other than these things you are generally left on your own. You may talk with your cellmate, but it is not encouraged to engage in conversation with any other prisoners. We don't want a mutiny after all.' She gave a faint smile at this and my eyebrows rose. 'You're going to get a day by yourself where you won't have to do anything, including the strip search. We'll leave you on your own. You'll get called for dinner at seven o'clock.'

Brigid came to a halt and I realised that we had reached cell twenty five. My new home. Joy.

As I examined the cell more closely, I realised how hi-tech these guys really are. The lock was freaking _electronic. _No keys, no nothin'.

Ari stepped forward and quickly punched in a code onto the touch screen, opening up the cell, which was decidedly less fancy than the lock. He smirked at Iggy and I. 'Only me, Brigid and the director know the pass code.' He told us gloatingly. 'Not even my guards get the privilege. You're not gonna break out anytime soon.' I frowned. Did he think that everyone was going to try and breakout or just us? 'Cause, you know, I'm still going to try it. I'm nothing if not stubborn.

He held the barred door open for me, still smirking and I walked inside slowly, willing myself not to _accidentally _trip him up on the way past.

Once I was inside, Ari wasted no time in slamming the door shut, creating a loud bang that echoed off the walls around us and as I turned back to them I saw that they'd already left, heading away down the corridor. As they walked further away, Iggy turned back to look at me and I waved half-heartedly at him before turning away again. I'd been half-way to making a friend here. An actual friend. But chances are that now I would never speak to him again, if I even see him. Sigh.

--

About two hours later and I'd finished examining my pitiful cell, determining the fact that there was no way out. The toilet in the corner was... you know. Just an average toilet and the window up near the top of the room was twenty centimetres on each side. Far too small for a teenager to crawl through. And there was no chance to do a MacGyver and dig myself out. Solid concrete floor.

Other than these things, the only thing adorning the room was a bunk bed with a hard mattress and holey sheets. Boy, was I looking for to sleeping in that tonight...

I was wondering when my cell mate would come. I'd been lying on the top bunk for a while now waiting for her and I was becoming increasingly impatient. They'd said she'd be here today, right? Then where was she?

As if answering my thoughts, I heard a sound down the corridor and I raised my head to look through the bars down the corridor towards where I could Brigid and Ari heading towards me with someone else by their side. Was that my cell mate?

As they neared me I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed so that I could see the three of them properly. They stopped by my cell and I heard Brigid give the same pep talk to the new comer as she'd given me. Ari unlocked the doors and let them in, and then he redhead looked up at me now and smiled. She seemed to like the new person more than she liked me. She was less stiff. 'Max – is it alright it I call you Max? – this is Monique Thomson, you're cell mate. Monique, this is Maximum Ride.'

'Hi! I'm Monique, but everyone – like, _everyone – _calls me Nudge, 'cause, you know, Monique is just so formal. Plus, I talk a lot, so everyone calls me Nudge coz that's what you have to do to get me to shut up most of the time, or like, totally shove me to keep me quiet. It's kinda annoying actually. Oh wow, I'm so glad I have a cell mate, I would have been so _lonely _if I got a single cell, because then there'd be no-one to socialise with! And that would suck. _Totally._ Ooh, you're so pretty! I wish I had hair like yours, it's really nice! And your eyes are totally awesome! I wish I had eyes like that, but I just have plain brown, not the pretty sort of brown like _yours._ And you're so tall, everyone wants a body like yours... Sooo, how come you're here instead of like, at home watching TV or something?'

I blinked. _This _was a criminal? You sure? Really? You haven't gotten the real law breaker mixed up with some preppy cheerleader or something? I could've been fooled.

I looked Monique – Nudge – up and down while she waited expectantly for my answer, and to be honest, I have no idea why she was calling _me _the pretty one. She had mocha skin and huge dark brown eyes framed by long lashes looking up at me. Her hair was a curly caramel coloured halo floating around her head, and she was tall and slim, though not as tall as me. **(I totally just described a Beyonce with curly hair...)**

I blinked again and looked around. Sometime during Nudge's monologue, Brigid and Ari had left and left us alone, and so I looked back at the other girl. 'Um, I robbed a warehouse.' I said honestly. 'We got caught.'

Nudge's eyes widened. I could tell just from looking at her that she was a sociable creature. She loved talking – that much was impossible to miss – and she seemed to love company. '_Really?_ Why did you get caught? Is that the first time you robbed it? Or, like, tried to at least. I would _never _be able to do something like that, I would be scared out of my wits.'

I looked at her. 'Uh, yeah, I hadn't robbed the store before. I guess we just weren't well informed about the security measures. What did you get in for?'

For a moment, her energy waned and I realised that it was a tentative topic for her that she didn't like to think about. 'Um, well, I kinda hacked into some government files.' She said and my mouth opened in an 'o' of surprise. Wow. Hacker. 'My parents thought that... well, it doesn't matter what they thought, but all three of us got caught and they got sent to jail and now I'm here.' She looked down at the ground as if she was half furious and half upset.

I frowned. If people I didn't like got upset then I wouldn't feel a thing. But on the other hand, this girl Nudge, seemed like a nice person who had just made a – a mistake, I guess. She didn't deserve to be in here.

After a few moments, Nudge looked back up again and smiled once more. Sudden mood change much? 'But anyway, that's over and done with now, so tell me! What was your old school like? Were you popular? How many parties did you go to...' She went on and on and I learned after the first two minutes that the easiest thing was just to tune her out and pretend you're listening. She didn't even notice that I had no idea what she said, even when I didn't answer one of the questions.

Normally, these sorts of girls annoyed me to no end with the fashion obsession and gossip about boys, but somehow, I didn't mind Nudge's chatter too much.

Is it possible that I just made a real friend at Gold Creek Correctional Facility?

**Oh my freaking god! I cannot do anything right! How is it that I promise myself that I would have all four of them meet each other and then it doesn't happen? **_**So**_** typical of me. Ah well. I **_**promise **_**that Max will meet Fang next chapter. **_**Promise.**_** I just had to end it here or it would end up being too long... for me anyway.**

**Ugh... 3000 words of crappiness. I don't think I'm over my writer's block, but I've finished the chapter, so it's going up... plus, I don't know what I would change about this anyway. Maybe it was just meant to be a bad chapter...**

**Review please :)**


	8. Chapter 8 Fang

**Before I start this chapter, on a completely unrelated sidenote, for the past three days I've been at band camp. Woot! (**_**"This one time, at band camp...")**_

**Ugh... you know what's frustrating? When you have an entire chapter typed up and then when you go to post it, the document has mysteriously disappeared and you have to start **_**all over again.**_** Normally I write up the chapter in my notebook and then type it up and like, add bits to it and stuff, but noooo. Mum has to frickin' **_**lose **_**that one (or in her words, put it somewhere that's functional but can't remember where) as well! Like, WTF? So I have to start from scratch! Grr. **

**But anyways, rant over, chapter now. Does anyone actually **_**read **_**my ANs? If you do, then I congratulate you. Congratulations!**

**Max POV**

Okay, I know I said that I didn't mind Nudge's talking and all, but I'd like to see you spend all afternoon with her _alone, _without wanting to rip someone's head off. She just went on and on and on and _on._ By the time seven o'clock – and therefore dinner – arrived, I was almost a nervous wreck. Almost.

I spent most of the time looking down the corridor, staring at the dull grey brick. Because that is just _so _interesting. None of the other inmates were back yet, and I wondered where they'd gone. They hadn't been around since I came here.

Meanwhile, Nudge was completely oblivious to my irritation. 'Oh, and this one time, at band camp, I pulled an all nighter with like, twenty other girls and then at like, three o'clock in the morning or something all the boys came into our room through the window because we unhinged it earlier – they actually _smashed _theirs when they were unlocking it, can you believe it? – and then we were all like, talking really loudly and then we heard the teacher coming, 'cause we have, like, ninja ears – can you actually have one part of the body that's ninja but not the rest? – and we like, got the boys to hide and then the teacher came in and we pretended we were asleep and that the teacher woke us up, even though we were like shouting and he would have heard us, and we made him feel sooo guilty and he just left, and it was hilarious! Have you ever been to band camp?' I stared at Nudge. That was _one sentence. _One. Sentence. How does she even get enough air? **(Yes, all this actually happened last night. We were high on Red Bull all night. All of it happened, even the smashing of the window... Woops. Blame Jesse! He did it! I actually heard one of my friends describe it like this to another non-band camper, word for word, and I'm just like 'Oh my God, totally Nudge.' But moving on.)**

I chose not to answer her question, simply because at that moment there was a flurry of movement at the end of the hall and I turned my head to see dozens of kids coming towards us looking flushed, with red cheeks and sweaty hair. I supposed they'd been at the hour of exercise that they got every day, or maybe they'd been at the therapy that Brigid had been talking about before. But for some reason, I doubt you came back from just talking with someone else looking completely exhausted. Unless they did _other _things with the therapists (You know the kind I mean)... Oh, God, I'm such a bad person, forget I said that. I think I'll just be going with the exercise option.

The teens started to pass us and Nudge swung her head around, only just noticing them. 'Oh!' She said. 'Are they the other JDs?'

I blinked. 'JDs?' What did that mean again?

Nudge gave me an are-you-freaking-kidding-me look and said, 'Yeah, JDs. It short for juvenile delinquents, everyone knows that! I mean, plenty of people just say juvenile delinquent, but I say JD because it's only two syllables whereas juvenile delinquent is...' she counted on her fingers. 'Six. It's just unneeded word space, you know?'

'You don't seem to have a problem with taking up unneeded word space, why not?'

'Shut up.' Nudge said. 'This conversation is pointless.'

I grinned. 'No conversation is pointless to _you _Nudge. I pretty sure that talking is like your _air. _You can't live without it.' I was actually being half serious.

Nudge gave me another look and turned back to the "JDs", pointedly keeping her mouth shut.

Not for long though.

'Ooh! They look so _sad!_' She whispered to me and she was right. It was obvious that these kids weren't enjoying themselves. I could hear a low undercurrent of talking among them, but as I looked through them, I couldn't see one smiling or even mildly happy face among them. I mean, jeez. Let's crank up the depression people! There's not enough in here! Come on. This may be a detention centre, but it can't be _entirely _devoid of good emotions. Can it? But still, these kids... they looked kinda... scared. Why would they be scared?

As the last of the kids went through, I saw that Ari was bringing up the rear, swinging his ring of keys around on his finger. He saw us and walked over, whistling a strangely merry tune that seemed totally out of place here. As if he were a postman on a paper run, not a prison guard herding kids to a room like sheepdog. 'Hello there, piggies. Do you want some dinner? We're having meatloaf. Or at least something that very slightly resembles it. Yum.' He grinned, baring his unnaturally sharp teeth and I felt Nudge shrink a little beside me, obviously intimidated by this huge jerk.

I looked at him, refusing to be cowed. 'It's dinner time?'

'Yeah.' He said, 'If you can call that dinner.' He shrugged. 'You coming?' We nodded, and he quickly selected a key from his ring and unlocked us, tugging us out by the arm.

Me and Nudge began to walk quickly down the hall after the other kids with Ari breathing down our necks and grinning in a way that would _definitely _win him the Creeper of the Year Award. Honestly.

He prodded us in the back and we went faster, entering a large room that was filled with tables and chairs and was teeming with kids who were lining up for their oh-so-delicious 'food'.

In here, the atmosphere was slightly lighter than the one that I had picked up on in the hall. I actually saw someone _laughing. _Amazing, right?

Ari walked past us and gave us a smirk. 'Have fun, piggies.' He strode up to a table of adults including Brigid and the director, Stevens, and I took a moment to flip him the bird behind his back while Nudge giggled softly and then grabbed a try and went to the end of the line.

We moved forward at an agonisingly slow rate (my stomach was totally _screaming _at me for food) and I spent the time searching through the crowd of kids for a certain strawberry blonde pyromaniac. But nope. Iggy was nowhere to be seen.

Speaking of Iggy, where was his cell mate? Brigid had said that there'd been four people arriving today, so where was the fourth one? He'd be here by now, right?

As we stood there in line, I saw that we were attracting a lot of stares from the others in the hall and it unnerved me, their expressions. It was almost as if they were sizing us up, calculating something about us. We moved forward about a millimetre in line and I heard a girl sitting at a nearby table say to her friend, 'The brown skinned one's not gonna last two days. But Blondie looks tough. It's just a matter of if she has enough brains to survive...' It's official: I hate blonde jokes. And what the hell are they talking about anyway? To survive?

We reached the top of the line and the lady standing their plopped something onto each of our plates that looked like it just _might _have been meatloaf. And then again, it just _might _have been some virus-infected, radioactive piece of crap for all I know. And in all seriousness, the latter seems more likely.

After we got our food, me and Nudge just stood there for a while looking like idiots, searching for a place to sit. But there were no tables that didn't have anyone at them.

I looked around for Iggy again, but it was like he had disappeared into thin air. There was nothing.

I considered pushing a couple of people out of their seats and making them move to another table so that we could have an empty one, but for some reason I didn't think that would go down too well. Just a hunch.

'Here, you can sit with us.' I looked over at whoever had spoken and saw a guy standing there with his food, looking at us with a friendly smile. He had tortoiseshell eyes and chestnut brown hair and he had this kind of happy look about him that made me wonder exactly what he had done to land himself in there. He looked to me like a teacher's pet, over achiever kind of guy that's good at everything. Sort of like the exact opposite of me. (You have no idea how many teachers hated me back home) Someone who would never break the law for their life. Except this guy obviously had.

Behind him were three other people, all of whom looked pretty nice. Well, what the heck, it wouldn't hurt to actually talk to others for once in my life. I looked back at the guy. 'Yeah, alright.'

'Cool.' He smiled again. 'I'm Sam, by the way.' As we started to walk back to the table, I looked around for Iggy once more, but he still wasn't in sight. Sigh.

I sat down at the table, my automatic wariness of the others flared up once more. It was just another thing to add to my strange paranoia. _Don't trust anybody._ I only just realised how much I'd actually disregarded that rule when it came to Nudge. It was like I just knew I could trust her or something. And Iggy too. Weird.

'This is Aedon.' Sam sat down next to me, too close for comfort, and pointed at a guy across from me with blonde hair and grey eyes who was eating his meal with unusual gusto, considering what it was probably made of. I almost threw up right there and then, watching him down it. I totally just lost my appetite.

'That's Lissa,' A girl diagonal from me glanced at me and Nudge and smiled. I appraised her. She had bright green eyes and a spattering of freckles across her nose, and her hair was long and red, curling down her back. Her food remained untouched.

'And the other one's JJ.' Sam finished, indicating the last occupant of the table, who was a tall, skinny girl with dull brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Her teeth flashed white as she grinned at us and said cheerfully, 'Hey, newbies. Wassup?'

Is it just me, or do these guys seem a bit... upbeat compared to the rest of the juvy kids? They were easily the happiest table in the room, the only ones who weren't pretty much borderline emo. What was it about the other kids that made them so unhappy and depressed? I was going to find out.

Next to me, Nudge was pretty much vibrating with excitement (she was probably thinking something along the lines of "_Omigosh! More people! More friends!"_) and she wasted no time in delivering a speech that was remarkably similar to the one that she'd given me. Within half a minute, the entire table looked completely bewildered at the speed of her speech. I wondered if I appeared the same when she did it to me. Hope not. Their expressions weren't exactly flattering.

When the other recovered themselves, a conversation soon emerged and I zoned out, only catching bits of the talking every once in a while. Stuff like "Oh, yeah, well there was this one time I stole three shirts from Jay Jays and they didn't even notice..." and "Well, I've never done hard stuff, but I've tried marijuana before." Is it just me, or do these people have a very one-topic way of speaking? I mean, do they actually talk about anything except their criminal ways?

I was aimlessly picking at my food when Ari got up from his table and strode out of the hall, grinning his creeper smile again. Where was he going? To terrorise more defenceless kiddies maybe?

We didn't have to wait long to find out. Two minutes later he walked back in with two other boys behind him and my eyebrows rose. One of the others was clearly Iggy, easily identifiable with his height and hair, but I didn't know who the other one was.

I looked the new guy up and down as he and Iggy went to get their food, and my eyebrows rose even further. I'll put it straight; New Guy was _hot. _Real hot. He was tall, though not as tall as Iggy, and he had black hair that flopped over an equally dark eye. He was wearing black-on-black, the first guy I've seen who actually made the style work. His skin was olive-toned, and everything about his face was expressionless. He had the kind of... aura, I suppose, that clearly said "Come on. Piss me off. I dare you. See what happens." I could see that he wasn't someone that I would be ticking off too much in the future.

Iggy and New Guy finished getting their food and I caught Iggy's eye, motioning him over to the table we were sitting at. He walked over with New Guy behind him and the others looked up at him, their eyes questioning.

'Who's this?' Iggy asked as if _they _were the new ones, not _him._

'Uh, this is Sam, Aedon, Lissa and JJ.' I told him. 'And this is Nudge, my cell mate.'

He nodded, his eyes lingering on Nudge for a moment before moving on. 'Okay, well hello everybody, I'm James, but everyone calls me Iggy, so you can too.' He sat down beside and I couldn't help but think that he seemed content about being in this place. I know that I for one hated it here and I hadn't even been here for more than four hours.

I jerked my thumb at New Guy. 'Who's that?' I asked with my usual delicacy and Iggy grinned again.

'This mute? This is Fang, guys. Say hello, Fang.' He said.

I saw something flash in New Guy's dark eyes and I could tell that he didn't appreciate being treated like a three year old. _Uh, Iggy man, might not be a good idea to infuriate him too much..._

'He's mute?' Nudge looked horror stricken and I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes.

'No, Nudge, I think he just means that Fang doesn't speak a lot. Right, Iggy?'

Iggy nodded. 'Yeah. He's said about five words since we met, and those were "I'm Nick, but call me Fang."'

'That's six words, dumbass.'

'Whatever.'

I saw Fang roll his eyes before he sat down and I guessed that he didn't like being talked about like he wasn't there. Well, too bad. Either he participates in conversation or he doesn't.

As we began eating again, I met Fang's eyes briefly and it was in that moment that I drew my conclusion about him.

He was silent and deadly, like a snake, dangerous and emotionless, but there was another side to him too, hidden underneath the surface. He had a gentle and kind side that was probably suffocating by now. He could be passionate about things too. But these things were hidden underneath his mask of indifference and they needed help not to drown. I was going to bring these emotions out from him.

You can count on it.

**Hmm... I made Fang sound really bad and OOC... Like, as if he's really violent or something. Which isn't true. But oh well. We'll live.**

**It's extra important that you review this week guys. If you don't, then I owe my twin brother (yes, I have a twin bro) thirty dollars. We made a bet, and so if I don't get at least ten reviews, I have to pay him, and if I do, then he gives me thirty bucks. I don't expect you to reach the mark, but please try. Particularly because I don't even have five cents. So try to get to 61 reviews, **_**please. **_**But I'll forgive you if you don't, because I love you guys :)**

**REVIEW! FOR THE SAKE OF MY BANK ACCOUNT! :D**


	9. Chapter 9 More Fang

**Well guys, I only asked for ten reviews, but hey, 18 is fine as well... haha, thanks guys, I am now thirty dollars richer (yes! I have the excuse to go to Jay Jays with my friends!) and my brother is **_**not **_**happy :) Excellent.**

**Ha ha. I have 69 reviews. ****Geddit? **_**69? **_**Hahahaha- Oh God, I'm immature...**

**So, on with the story! Let's have Fang PMS some more! Woot!**

**Max POV**

I picked at my food as the conversation around the table started up again after Iggy and Fang had settled down.

I wasn't listening to the others. I was too busy considering other things. Like – Why was Fang so closed off? And what about what the girl across the room had said when we were waiting in line for food? "_The brown-skinned one's not going to last two days. But Blondie looks tough."_ What was that about? It was really weird. Was Gold Creek Correctional Facility really all that it said it was? Just a detention centre? And if it wasn't, how was I supposed to find out? Why am I asking all these rhetorical questions?

'Max. Max... _Max!'_

I blinked several times and looked around, coming out of the trance that my thinking had pulled me into. 'What?'

'We asked,' said Lissa in an overly patient voice, 'what did you do to end up in this crapshack?'

I shrugged. How many times would I have to say it? 'Broke into a warehouse, got caught.' I didn't even bother with full sentences. 'What about you?'

'Oh, you know, I just did a bit of stealing around the shops every now and then.' Lissa told me. JJ snorted loudly and Lissa glared at her. 'Okay, fine, I did it every day. Happy now? JJ did it with me.'

'Yeah, but I didn't get caught half as much as you did.' JJ retorted. 'Because _I, _unlike you, have _skills.'_

'Yeah right!'

'Well I wagged half the school year away,' Aedon interrupted them, in a distinctly proud manor. 'Literally. My parents got sick of getting calls from the school asking where I was, so they told the teachers to do something about it and BAM here I am.'

'Nice, man.' Iggy told him, shaking his head. 'What about you, Sam?'

Sam shifted uncomfortably in his seat. 'Uh... well... I... sent a guy to hospital.'

Iggy burst out laughing and both me and Nudge snickered. Fang's mouth quirked up slightly. _Very _slightly. 'You?' Iggy gasped through his laughter, unaware of the fact that he was making quite a scene in the hall and just about everybody in here was staring at him. _'You _sent a guy to hospital? No way!' Obviously I'm not the only one who thinks that he looked like a teacher's pet, goody two-shoes kind of person.

'Now, Fang here,' Iggy patted Fang's arm, oblivious to the way that Fang flinched away from the physical contact. 'I could believe that _he _would beat someone up, but I would never think of you.'

Both Sam and Fang frowned at this. Gee, good work Iggy, you're making _such _a good impression on your table mates.

After a moment more of silence in the room, some of the people at the other tables started eating again and eventually the low amount of talking was restored.

'So Fang, what _did _you do?' Nudge inquired, looking at him where he was sitting eating his food quietly without paying attention to the rest of us.

He glanced up now and shrugged slightly. 'A lot of things,' he said and then he went back to his meal. God damn he's antisocial.

'Like...?' I prodded and this time when he looked up he glared at me and I blinked. Sheesh, big boy, take it easy.

'I don't want to talk about it.' He snapped and I frowned. Well neither did I, but I still did.

'Dude, just tell us,' Iggy pushed. 'I have the right to know, as your cell mate.'

'No.'

'It can't be that bad can it?' Sam asked.

'It's not.' Fang replied. 'But that doesn't mean I have to tell you.'

'Oh come on...'

I watched as Fang seemed to contemplate further argument and his face started to take a slightly mulish look to it before suddenly it cleared of all expression whatsoever. Freaky.

'Fine.' He said coolly. 'I drank. I was in a gang. That's what I was caught for. I vandalised. I stole. I did drugs once. Happy?' And then, without waiting for an answer he got up and moved to another table, whose occupants looked at him in a distinctly strange fashion before going back to their meals.

It was completely silent at our table before Nudge finally said, '... That was weird.'

'He seems a bit... unbalanced, if you ask me.' I said, watching him as he ate with his head down over at the other table. I wonder what had made him that way.

'Agreed.' Iggy said. 'But jeez. He's done a lot of stuff, hasn't he? I had no idea.'

I nodded, but before I could answer, a loud dong sounded and I looked up at the head table to see Allen Stevens, the director of this place, standing next to a large gong, smiling at us with a stick hanging from his hand. 'Dinner's over everyone!' He called. 'Please follow Mr Batchelder back to your rooms!' Rooms? What rooms? Did he mean _cells?_

There was a loud shuffling and scraping as benches were shoved back and the inmates got up to go back to their cells meekly. Wait – meekly? That doesn't seem right. These guys are _criminals _after all. Where's all the shouting and shoving that should be going on?

Something was definitely going on with these kids. Something wasn't right. But what?

**Fang POV**

As we walked back to our cells, Iggy caught up to me. 'Dude, you all right?' He asked and I rolled my eyes. Yes, Iggy, after snapping and then storming off during dinner, I have never been better! I didn't say that of course. Instead, I just lifted a shoulder slightly and said 'Yeah. Fine.'

He stared at me worriedly, before seeming to dismiss it and walked back to where the group we'd sat with a dinner were walking and talking quietly. As he rejoined them he said something and the blonde girl – Max, I think? – glanced over at me, curiosity clear in those brown eyes. I blinked once and then turned away, looking at the non-descript grey concrete ground in front of me.

She was pretty, Max. Really pretty. But that wasn't what made me like her. Aside from the fact that she was just pleasing overall, there was just something about her that only added to her attractiveness. Maybe it was the fact that she was clearly unafraid of me when most people just... are. Or maybe it was the fact that her eyes showed that she was obviously very intelligent and perceptive. Most people were never able to know what I was thinking – at all. But Max seemed to look right through me. It was kinda scary.

Up ahead of me, Ari pressed a button on a remote control that he had taken out of his pocket and the cells around us instantaneously popped open as one so that the kids wouldn't have to wait for the guard to open them separately. Ooh, handy.

I could see my cell coming up and when I reached it I saw Ari standing there beside it grinning at me. 'Just here to make sure that you settled in alright, newbie.' He told me and I shivered as I walked past him into the cell and flopped down on my bunk. To tell you the truth, Ari actually scared me. He was just so... intimidating. Stronger than me, that was for sure. But I don't think he was smarter. You know the saying 'all brawn, no brain'? Yeah.

Iggy walked into the cell and glanced warily at Ari as he passed him, but didn't make a comment. Probably a good idea. From what I knew of Iggy, he was quite a smart arse and he just didn't know when to shut up. But other than that he seemed pretty cool. Smart, a pyromaniac – he told me what he'd done when I first came like, an hour ago on the bus. He was funny.

When Ari had gone, giving us a last freaky grin as he left, Iggy stared at me and I sighed. I knew what he wanted. He was going to ask me why I had flipped out back at dinner. I looked at the ground as he opened his mouth. 'So, Fang... do you wanna explain?'

'Not really.'

Iggy's mouth twisted in a frown. 'Come on, man.'

I sighed again. 'Fine. I just got angry because... well because it reminded me of how much I let my mum down.'

Iggy's eyebrows rose. I guess he didn't pick me for a sentimental man. 'No, I'm not really a mummy's boy.' I assured him. 'It's just cause she... well she died two years ago. Of cancer. And I only started crime after she was gone. And I just don't like how I know it would of disappointed her, where I am now. She always wanted me to do the best in life, and she would have been horrified if she found out that I was a criminal. That's all.'

Iggy was quiet for a moment. Then he said, 'Well, if it makes you feel any better, I wish I had a mum that would be as disappointed in me as yours would have been. _My _mother doesn't give a rat's arse what happens to me. So in a way, you're lucky you even had a mum like that in the first place.'

I let the corner of my mouth pull up slightly in a half smile. 'Thanks, Iggy.'

He gave me a smile. 'No problem, Fang.'

**Aww. Sad Fang.**

**...Oh my freaking God. I just watched the replay of Germany vs. Australia in the World Cup. WTF. I am seriously sick of refs being biased against Australia on an international standard. I mean, come on! It showed at the last World Cup and they're doing it again on this one! THAT WAS NOT A FUCKING RED CARD AND YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED THAT FUCKING CLEAR HANDBALL. WE WOULD HAVE SCORED IF YOU HAD. Seriously, did any of you guys see that game? Tim Cahill was trying to pull out of the bloody tackle but nooo. Straight red! WTF WTF WTF.**

**And then the handball? **_**In the penalty box?**_** Okay, I'll admit that we were always gonna get thumped (Germany is a GREAT team) but it could have been at least 4-1! :'(**

**We can still win though, if we beat Ghana and Serbia though, which we can if Pim Verbeek (our 'coach') decides not to do more stupid things than he already has.**

**Review please! :D**

**P.S- Me: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!**

**You: OI! OI! OI!**

**:D**


	10. Chapter 10 Creepiness

**Wow guys, I just love the fact that you review just to talk about the World Cup. Real dedication to my story you got there ;)**

**But here's your next chapter anyway... enjoy :)**

**Max POV**

The next morning I was woken by a loud siren wailing over the compound and I blearily opened my eyes, completely unwilling to get up and face the new day. I groaned and turned over, trying to get back to sleep, but it was no use. The loud awful screeching sound was corkscrewing right to the middle of my conscience, where the beginning of a headache was starting, courtesy of that wake up call I was being given at that very moment. Jeez. A headache about two seconds after I wake up. Only _I _could achieve something like that.

I groaned. '_This _is how we're being woken up every day?' I muttered to myself.

I heard a similar moan beneath me. 'S'pose so...' A voice answered and I started for a moment, and then remembered that Nudge was in the same room as me.

'So... do you think we should actually get up?' I asked Nudge as I sat up slowly on my hard mattress.

Her only response was to moan again before rolling out of bed and onto the hard floor with a loud 'oof!', dragging all her sheets with her. It seemed that neither of us were morning people. I suppose that I should be thankful for Nudge's unusual quietness.

The alarm had stopped and I was just contemplating going back to sleep when there was a popping sound and our cell door swung wide open, as did every other door in the hallway. Cool. I guess a remote did that.

I lethargically pulled the sheets off me and then hopped down onto the ground from my bunk bed, ignoring the ladder that had been placed near it to help me get down.

I looked down at nudge, who was still lying on the ground with her sheets tangled around her body, eyes closed and obviously on the verge of going back to sleep.

I kicked her lightly and her eyes popped open to look at me. 'C'mon.' I said as I ran a hand through my dirty blonde hair, unsuccessfully trying to tame it before I faced the public. 'I think it's breakfast time.'

I watched as movements started in the other cells nearby and people began to emerge, yawning and stretching as they formed a large clump in the middle of the hallway, obviously waiting to be taken charge of by one of the authorities around here, who had yet to appear. O...kay. As I've stated before, it's a bit weird for law breakers to act so docile, but hey, what do I know? Maybe they all had split personalities and I'm yet to see their aggressive side... yeah... right.

I spotted Iggy and Fang join the group of juvies and I quickly hurried over to the two of them, dragging a protesting Nudge behind me.

'Hey,' Iggy said to us as we approached, smothering a huge yawn behind the back of his hand. Fang only acknowledged us with a slight inclination of his head. I wondered if he'd gotten over last night yet. Whatever there was to get over.

I was beginning to wake up now and my eyes travelled over the sea of teenagers, looking for the other kids we'd met last night, Sam, JJ, Lissa and Aedon. But they were nowhere to be seen.

I looked back at my current companions to find that Nudge had already managed to tug Iggy into a conversation which only left me and Fang to uh, talk.

Psshh, _right._ I mean, in case you haven't noticed, Fang isn't the most talkative person in the world. No, _that _position has already been filled by _Nudge._

But either way, while Iggy and Nudge were wrapped in their own little convo, Fang and I just stood there in a thick silence, staring at the ground, not looking at each other.

Say it with me now: _Awkwaaaard._

I glanced around and realised that the group had started to move towards where we'd eaten last night, Brigid leading them.

I followed them like the good little sheep I was (baa...) and when we reached the room, the smell of burning oatmeal instantly assaulted my nose. Ick.

'Mmm, yum. I _love _to have burnt porridge for breakfast,' a low voice whispered sarcastically near my ear and I spun in shock to see Fang smirking at me, apparently having crept up behind me while I was completely unaware.

'Oh my God!' I gasped. 'You're a frickin' _ninja, _Fang!'

His smirk broadened for a second and then he moved past me, grabbing a bowl from a nearby table where they were stacked high, moving towards the lengthening line to wait for food.

I glared at his back for a moment. I mean, it's pretty much a rule of life, for God's sake! You do _not _shock or scare Max if you want to live. (I mean, me? Scared? What crap are _you _talking?) And Fang had just broken that rule. _And _he was still living.

I rejoined Iggy and Nudge who were _still _immersed in each other (is it just me or have their tones taken a very flirtatious turn?) and tried to tune out their talking for a while.

Once we had our breakfast, we sat down with Fang where he was sitting alone at a table near the side and not long after that, JJ, Sam, Aedon and Lissa also joined us, seeming far to awake and alive for whatever hour of the morning it was.

They chattered happily as they ate breakfast and I wondered why they were so close knit when everyone else in the hall seemed to be sticking together just so that they didn't stand out, instead of from actual affection. I was very tempted to ask them why this was.

So that's exactly what I did.

JJ laughed. 'Oh, you mean why we actually seem to _like _each other, when everyone else's friendship's are fake? It's just 'cause they're all such _bores _Max! Nobody else here has any personality at all!'

'It's like the life has been sucked right out of them.' Lissa agreed with a slight shiver.

_Like the life has been sucked right out of them..._

'Yeah, it's actually really creepy,' Sam continued. 'Our group used to be bigger too. There were more people who were actually easy to get along with. Like – you see that girl over there? The Hispanic one with the brown hair and eyes?' I looked to where he was pointing and nodded as I spotted the girl. 'Her name's Ella Martinez. She used to sit with us every day, she was really sweet and funny. And then one day about a month ago she got taken away for some special treatment with her therapist and when she came back she wanted nothing to do with us. She wouldn't talk to us, wouldn't sit with us, she'd barely even look at us. She said that if we didn't 'behave' then we'd be 'punished' and then she just completely ignored us.'

Aedon spoke up now. 'And she's not the only one,' he said, his voice lowering to a conspiratorial whisper. Everyone at the table was listening now. 'Half of us in this hellhole have been taken away by psychiatrists, only to return with a completely different character. They usually take the louder more violent ones for this 'treatment', but sometimes they get the shyer, innocent ones, like poor Ella. And when those loud ones come back, they just don't... they just don't fight anymore, you know? And then the rest of us are too scared to do anything bad either, just in case it happens to _us._'

'Fear always was a good way to settle an unruly crowd.' Iggy murmured.

My eyes slowly narrowed as I took in the information Sam and Aedon had just given me.

So apparently kids are taken away occasionally by their therapists and when they come back their characters are completely changed.

The louder, more obnoxious and rule breaking ones are targeted the most, but they are not necessarily the only ones taken. And because of this, the rest of the kids in the place, the ones who _haven't _been changed will happily do whatever they're told, just so they won't get taken away.

Jeez. This place is _creepy._

I opened my mouth to ask another question but I was interrupted by a loud bong that I'd heard last night and Allen Stevens voice.

'Breakfast is over everybody!' the director called. 'It's time for your therapy sessions!'

Oh, goody. It was time to meet my psychiatrist. Joy.

**And there you have it! I know, I know, uber short and kinda fillerish, but whatever. Some solid plot next chapter :)**

**Review please! Do you think we can make it to 100? I do ;)**


	11. Chapter 11 Therapy

**100 reviews, hell yeah! Haha. Thaaaankyooooouuuu :) (Whoa. You know that little voice that reads things to you in your head? Well I just reread that long thankyou there and the voice sounded **_**exactly **_**like my older brother's voice, not even my own. I'm a strange child.)**

**Enjoy the new chapter. (I'm smiling evilly at the moment, if you were wondering. Which you weren't.)**

**Max POV**

My therapy session was... interesting, to say the least.

After Stevens had finished his announcement, the kids moved off straight away, walking out the door and out of sight immediately without a second word. I spotted Brigid moving towards us where we were just standing there, unsure where to go. Ari was following behind her like the faithful doggy he was.

Sam and his gang were lagging behind slightly, apparently reluctant to go to therapy but as Brigid reached us she waved her hand at them and said impatiently, 'I only need the newcomers. You know the drill. Get moving!'

JJ scowled and looked like she was going to say something, but Sam quickly grabbed her arm and tugged her along with Lissa and Aedon, dragging her to the double doors of the room and disappearing from sight. She waved gloomily at us as she backed out. _Bye..._

Brigid waited until they were gone before she turned to us. 'Well, obviously you know what's going on, but I need to take you guys to meet your therapists and help you settle in well. Is that alright?'

'Do we have a choice?' I muttered and she shot me a quick glare before giving a fake toothy smile.

'Well no, you don't actually. Are you ready?' She gave us all a quick look over, as if judging our strength and I couldn't help but notice how her gaze lingered on Fang for a moment too long before she looked away.

Oh, ew. Can we say paedophile, maybe? Honestly. She was at least twenty two and he was only sixteen. But that didn't stop her from eyeing him up. The cows were going to come asking for their eyes back if she didn't stop soon.

Brigid strode away and exited the room, giving us no choice but to follow her and she set a brisk pace down the hallway, apparently eager to get her job done and ditch us with our therapists.

We walked quickly through another corridor, which was lined by doors that led to I don't know where and then through a gym, which must be part of where we exercised. I was surprised by the quality of the equipment I saw in there. I guess they took their fitness seriously.

Once we'd exited the gym, we came to another corridor that had doors along the side and Brigid stopped and turned to face us. Ari came up behind us, smirking about something.

'Okay, this is the psychological wing.' Brigid said. 'We are very proud of it. Some of our psychologists are among the best in the world.'

'Yeah, and the rest of them don't know the difference between a fork and a spoon,' muttered Ari under his breath. I don't think he knew I could hear him. But boy did his remark fill me with confidence!

I caught his eye (accidentally) and he gave me one of his wolf's grins that I was quickly learning to recognise as his trade mark. I gave him a smirk of my own and looked away again.

'James, you're first,' Brigid said continued on, unaware of Ari interrupting. 'You have psychologist number 38, Dr Charles Bray.' Jeez, even their _therapists _had numbers. 'Have fun,' Brigid said as she opened the door for Iggy.

'Oh, I will...' he said softly as he entered, winking at me as he went past. Oh dear. I feel for the poor therapist. Not that I planned on giving _my _guy hell or anything.

We moved on as Nudge was dropped off with some guy named Dr Curtain, I think. It was something fabric-y. But he was otherwise known as number 54. I wondered if there was some system to the numbering they used.

We walked on in a strangely tense silence and then Brigid halted once again. 'Nicolas, this is your stop! Number 24, Tamara Brooke.' She gave a breathy laugh and he blinked. 'Well, in you go. Have _fun,' _she gave him a very _special _smile (read: _flirtatious_) and he only just managed to squeeze through the door before shutting it on her face. Hah. Burn.

She blinked a couple of times and then pasted another fake smile on her face (she is totally pro at those – she without a doubt practises in the mirror) and then she looked at me. 'I guess it's just you and me Max! Oh, and Ari I suppose,' she added dismissively, flicking her long hair over her shoulder at him. Ouch. On a scale of one to ten, how rejected do you feel Ari?

We headed down the hallway in silence until we were right at the end and Brigid opened the door for me. 'In you go! _You _have number 4 Max. Dr Tony Bass. Good luck.'

I raised my eyebrows as I entered. Like I needed it. It was Dr _Bass _who needed the luck.

The door shut softly behind me and I looked around, taking in the desk in the middle of the room, the book shelf off to the side, packed full of books, a couple of certificates hung up on the walls in simple timber frames. Simple enough room.

In the middle, sitting at the desk was a man with greasy black hair and pale, almost colourless eyes. He was watching me with a neutral expression on his face, his hands clasped in front of him on the desk. He didn't look too old, maybe thirty five, but he was obviously one of those types of people who had been picked on when they were in high school because of their nerdy habits.

I looked back at him for a moment and then he spread his hands out to me and attempted a smile. (He failed horribly.) 'You must be Miss Maximum. Well, please take your seat. We have a lot of things to get through in this session, Maximum.'

A single eyebrow of mine rose as I took the seat on the other side of the desk. 'It's Max. Not Maximum and definitely not _Miss _Maximum. Get it right.'

He blinked. 'Right. Sorry... Max. Well I'm Dr Tony Bass, but you can call me Dr Bass if you like.'

'No, I think I'll stick with Tony. More... homey, you know?' I smiled sweetly and his eyebrows contracted slightly. Ooh this would be easy. I hadn't even been in here a minute and I was already getting on his nerves.

'Dr Bass please, Max. Now I was wondering, how old are you exactly?'

'One hundred and three.' I told him sincerely. 'I take special pills to help me look younger. Can you tell?'

He frowned some more. 'Max, I am used to dealing with criminals like you. You might as well just tell me, because I will get it out of you eventually.'

I laughed. 'Trust me Doc, you've _never _met anyone like me. I am... _unique._ So you just try get it out of me. See how far you get.'

His eyes narrowed and I slowly saw his pretence of being a kind person falling away, layer by layer. Well, he hadn't been too good at it in the first place. 'Maximum, I know full well you're sixteen. I only asked you that question to gage how co-operative you were. And as it turns out...'

'A rabid lion is easier to deal with?' I suggested mildly. 'Yeah, I get that a lot. Tony.'

Dr Bass sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead, pushing some of his hair back out of his face. 'Let's just... move on. What's your favourite colour?'

'And this has to do with _what?'_

'Just answer the question.'

'Why should I?'

'I'm trying to help you Maximum. There is no need to be so difficult.'

'Yeah and there's no need for you to be so ugly either. Trust me Tony, wash that hair more than once a year, put a bit of meat on those bones, and hey, maybe you'll even get your first _girlfriend!_'

'I have had a girlfriend before and slighting someone's appearance will get you nowhere in life, Max.'

'You call yourself a psychologist, but you're delusional yourself Doc! I hate to break it to you, but that cheerleader you stalked back in eighth was _not_ your girlfriend, whatever you believe.'

'I will ask you once more, Maximum, what is your favourite colour?'

'Rainbow.'

There was a moment of silence as Dr Bass took in a deep breath. Hah. This was fun.

Then he asked, 'Do you have a good personal image of yourself?'

'Do _you?_'

'What about you parents? Did they treat you right?' He asked me, choosing to completely ignore my question.

'Look at where I am, Doc.' I said sardonically. 'Would good parents bring up a child who managed to land herself in prison before she was even an adult?'

Dr Bass looked at me steadily, although I could see it was an effort. 'I hope you are not trying to blame your current position on your parents, Max.'

'Nope! Course not!' I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. He gave me a look, obviously trying to keep his temper.

'Let's move on.'

Dr Bass reached under his desk and when he re-emerged, he was holding a stack of thick white plastic cards with little indistinct pictures drawn on each one. Oh goody, he had flash cards! I could work with these!

'I am assuming you know what these are.' Doc said, indicating the cards. 'And what they are for?' I just looked at him until he broke my gaze. I thought therapists were supposed to be the ones making _you _uncomfortable with their prying questions, not the other way round. This was one sad excuse for a psychologist.

Dr Bass held up the first card, which seemed to be a picture of a dark red blob. 'What do you see when you look at this picture, Max?'

I suppose most juvy criminals would say like, a pool of blood or something else gruesome. But not me. No, _I _said 'A donkey.'

'Max.'

'Yes?' I flashed him an innocent smile.

'I want you to be serious for a moment here.'

I sighed as though I was defeated and said, 'Alright, Dr Bass.' I saw a spark of something light in his pale eyes. Oh. He thought _he'd _won.

'So tell me again. What do you see in this picture?' He showed me the red blob again.

I took it from him and studied it carefully, then looked back up at him. 'So?' He prompted and I took a deep breath.

'I see...' I paused for a moment and then smirked. 'A freckle on your nose.'

'Maximum!' Bass threw his hands up in the air and I grinned and sat back, satisfied.

He took a few deep breaths and I waited patiently for him to recover. After a few moments, he sat back up and looked at me. 'Let's continue.'

You think he would have realised that it was better for him to just give up.

**Fang POV**

After I had finished my therapy session with Tamara Booke she told me that I had to wait Brigid to come collect me and the others and take us to the exercise area, where we could do whatever we wanted apparently, as long as it included fitness.

The therapy had been surprisingly okay. Tamara was smart and quick witted and she wasn't even an eyesore to look at, which was a plus. She immediately picked up on my 'silent and dangerous' vibe and accommodated herself to it, making the most out of my short answers and picking up a surprising amount about my personality while she was at it. According to her, the reason I was so quiet was because 'something bad had happened to me when I was younger and it had had a lasting effect on me, even though I wasn't ready to talk about it yet.' Well I could have told her that. But kudos to her for figuring it out on her own, right?

But I couldn't help but distrust her. I mean, after what Sam and the others had said at breakfast? Yeah... kinda doesn't help install a good firm, open relationship between psychologist and patient, you know?

Once Brigid arrived with Iggy and Nudge in tow, she picked me up and we left Tamara to go get Max.

When we reached the door, it swung open before Brigid could reach the handle and a man with black hair and light grey eyes held it open for us. He seemed all too ready to get rid of Max.

She, on the other hand, looked perfectly comfortable with him.

'Bye Tony!' She said as she walked – no, _strutted _– out the door and joined us, giving him a little voice as she went. He looked like he wanted to murder someone. Preferably Max.

He slammed the door and there was a moment of silence before Max said happily, 'That was fun! We have them again tomorrow, right? Awesome.'

I just shook my head along with the rest of us.

**Yeaahhh. That really **_**was**_** fun, I know where you're coming at Max.**

**So. I was listening to my iPod today and the song 'Run, Don't Walk' came on. I didn't feel like listening to it, so I skipped to the next song, which was 'You're Stumblin'. I skipped that one too and the song after that was 'Just Dance'. I am now confused as to what my iPod is trying to tell me. Do I run, stumble or dance?**

**Review please!**


	12. Chapter 12 Parental Stories

**Whoa, sorry about the long wait guys. Totally unintended. But you'd probably be used to my totally shitty updating skills by now, right? And anyway, I had Writer's Block. I think I must have rewritten the start of this chapter about twenty times. Yeah… sorry. **

**On the other hand, thanks for all the reviews! You guys are fantastic.**

**Enjoy.**

**P.S- Pandorad24: I used your idea, just switched it around a bit. As you will see. And I completely agree. Iggy ROCKS. (And thanks for the compliments, they made my day :) )**

**Max POV**

Exercise was up next. According to Brigid, we spent an hour in the gym, doing whatever we wanted, as long as it was physical. There was an outdoor area as well, but that was only open in spring and autumn, when it was summer now. Apparently, the outdoor place had once been open all year round, but then one day it was so hot that someone had almost died from the heat and exertion combined, and they'd had to close it for the season. Or at least, that's what Brigid said.

When she dropped us off at the gym, I immediately headed for the treadmill in the middle of the room and hopped on, glancing around at the rest of the room. The place was packed with kids, who were all participating in the exercise, serious expressions on their faces. I could spot Fang wandering over to the weights by the side and Iggy had hopped up onto the treadmill next to me. Nudge, in the meantime, was standing dumbstruck in the middle of the room, looking around at all the equipment with a bemused expression on her face. If I guessed right, then she'd probably never been to a gym in her life. I mean, she wasn't unfit or anything, but her long legs and slim form suggested a dancer, not like… a weightlifter.

Eventually, she came over to us and stood on the third treadmill, located next to Iggy, who'd already started up the machine and was jogging at a steady pace. I turned my thing on and started running as well, while Nudge just stared at the treadmill nervously. I smiled. 'All you have to do is turn it on and start running Nudge,' I told her and she gave me a look.

'I _know, _Max,' She said snidely. 'I'm just not too used to treadmills. I'm not much of a runner. I do ballet and hip-hop dance. Well, I _did.'_ Oh, so I was right was I? She _is _a dancer.

Nudge started up the treadmill and hopped on, taking a few nervous stumbles at first and then slowly beginning to get the rhythm. She grinned over at me and Ig. 'See? I'm not _that _hopeless Max. Jeez.'

'What about you, Iggy?' I asked him. 'What sports did you do? Before you were sent here, of course.'

He snorted as he looked over at me. 'Sports? Like my parents would let me do _them.'_

I frowned. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean that my parents – who aren't my _real _parent's, by the way – never let me and my siblings Gazzy and Angel compete in anything. They said that it was to keep us safe and sheltered. I just think they were deliberately trying to take the fun out of our lives.' He frowned furiously and my eyebrows rose. Looks like I wasn't the only one with a bad childhood.

'What do you mean they're not your real parents?' Nudge asked, eyes wide. 'Did they take you from your mum and dad? Like, kidnap you in the night 'cause your mum and dad did something to piss them off?'

Iggy grinned. 'That's a bit conspiratorial, don't you think Nudge?' His smile faded and turned back into a frown. 'No… my real mum and dad were much worse than my foster parents.'

I had a feeling that I wasn't supposed to ask what he was on about, seeing as he was obviously uncomfortable with the topic, and I wasn't going to question him any further, but it seemed like Nudge was too curious for her own good. 'Why?' She asked simply. Mentally, I performed an impressive facepalm.

Iggy bit his lip and looked away. 'Uh…' he started hesitantly. 'Well, I haven't seen them since I was seven,' he stalled. 'They could've changed by now, right?'

I glanced over. 'Nudge, I don't think he wants to talk about it,' I started, but Iggy shook his head impatiently.

'Nah, it's alright Max.' He said and I shrugged. If you say so.

He turned back to Nudge. 'Basically, my dad was alcoholic and abusive and my mum couldn't care less about what he did to me. He'd come home drunk, and if he was in a bad mood then I'd have bruises all over me for weeks afterwards.' His voice turned harsh and I saw Nudge's eyes widen drastically. 'I was really little back then, so I didn't know that I had to hide the bruises. People saw them and worried about me. They asked what was going on, and I told them. They were horrified, of course. I didn't know why. I thought it was _normal _for parents to hit their kid.' He went on bitterly. 'Anyway. One of my friend's mums called the police down onto my house and I was taken away to hospital and put in a foster home after that. I think my real parents are both in jail right now. I don't know. I haven't seen them since then.'

Nudge's eyes were filled with sympathy. 'Oh, Iggy,' she said softly. 'That's awful. But at least you're away from all that now, right?'

'Yeah.' Iggy gave a weak grin as Fang left the weights and decided to stop being a loner and join us. 'I mean, the owners of the foster home were just as bad. At the start they all made out to be saints or something, but they hit sometimes as well, so when I was eight, I ran away from them. Then I spent four years alone in the street. How I managed to survive when I was only eight at the time, I have no idea.'

'So… how did you find your current parents?' I ventured and Iggy truly smiled for the first time since he'd started his recount.

'I was wandering around Phoenix one day, when I was twelve, wondering how I was going to find dinner, when I walked past this perfect garden – white picket fence and everything – and on the grass, playing with this little angel bear was a little girl. She was so entrancing. Everything about her screamed 'innocent' to me. She looked like a real angel.' I couldn't help but smile. It was obvious to me that Iggy loved this girl.

'And she looked up and saw me watching her,' he went on, 'and instead of giving my ragged clothes and dirty face the disdainful look that everyone else around there had looked at me with, she smiled. She smiled and she asked me to come play with her.' He grinned. 'It's hard to resist a face like that, let me tell you.' He shook his head. 'Of course, when her parents found her playing with a complete stranger who had the worst hygiene they'd seen in years, they freaked. Grabbed the girl away from me within milliseconds, threatened to call the cops. They even brought a broom out to 'beat' me away, like I was a rat,' he snickered. 'And then the little girl started to cry, asked me not to leave. She was only five. The parents tried to convince her otherwise, but she had a will of iron. She just wanted me to stay. I don't even know why. Anyway, the parents let me stay the night, on the couch, just to make their daughter stop wailing. And… well, I never really left,' Iggy shrugged.

'What was the little girl's name?' Fang asked quietly when it was apparent that Iggy's story was over.

'Angel,' Iggy told him, smirking. 'Well, Angel_a_. But everyone called her Angel. Her and her brother, Gazzy, were the only things that stopped me from leaving that place, just like I'd left everywhere else. They were just irresistible like that, you know?'

I wondered what it's be like to have siblings. Even if they were foster ones, like Iggy's. But I knew that I'd never get any.

I was never supposed to be born, to put it bluntly. An accident. The result of a one night fling. Do you need to know anything else? Apparently when they'd found out that mum was knocked up with me, they considered abortion but couldn't pay for it, and were then stuck with me. They couldn't give me to an orphanage either, god knows why. And yes, they _did _actually tell me all this.

I could hear Nudge chattering away in the background about how happy she was that she had good parents who loved her and only wanted what was best for her. Well goody for her, right? Maybe I could convince her parents to adopt me… except, well, they were in jail. Bit of a downer. Nudge had told me before we went to sleep last night.

Fang was leaning against the head of Iggy's treadmill, apparently deep in thought. I nudged him. 'What about you?' I asked him. 'What's your parental story?'

He stiffened and I saw Iggy glance at him sympathetically. My eyebrows rose as he looked back at me. 'Mum's dead.' He said lowly and I frowned. Ah. Maybe I shouldn't have asked… 'She died of lung cancer, a year ago.'

'I'm sorry – ' I began, but he shook his head.

'Don't apologise,' he muttered. 'It's not as if it was _your _fault she's dead.'

'What about your dad?' I asked him and he shrugged.

'After mum died, he became a control freak who I couldn't help but rebel against. That's how I started crime in the first place.'

Was Nudge really the only one of us who'd had a normal childhood? From what I could tell, she'd been happy as a child, whereas the rest of us were without a doubt troubled as a kid.

A siren blared out then, signaling the end of exercise, and I looked up. 'Is it lunchtime?' I asked eagerly.

'Yeah,' a voice laughed at my shoulder and I jumped and looked around to see JJ grinning at me, from where she had apparently appeared out of nowhere.

'We're forced to eat the processed crap called food that they give us, and then after that we get an hour of 'school'.' She informed me. 'We don't get taught a thing. But after that, we just laze around in our cells until dinnertime.'

'Didn't you have exercise right before dinner last night?' I asked in confusion. We started walking with the other towards the door to the gym.

'Yeah,' she said easily, shrugging. 'The times for school and therapy and gym sessions change, according to the day. It takes a while to get used to, but you'll get it eventually.'

I sighed. _You'll get used to it. _That's all assuming that I stick around long enough for it to become routine. And I won't. As soon as I get the chance, I'm out of here. I'm nothing if not stubborn.

At the back of my mind, I absentmindedly wondered if _I _would be one of the ones to be taken away for the special 'therapy' that Sam and the others had talked about before, during dinner last night. Maybe it would happen before I got the chance to escape.

And that set me on another path of thinking. Did everyone who was taken away by the therapists return?

Or… did some disappear forever?

**Not exactly a haha chapter, right? Yeah… but now you know more about Iggy and Max's past and there's been a **_**slight**_** progression in the whole 'big scary therapists take poor kids away and suck the life right out of them' thingo. There'll be more on that next chapter, most likely.**

**Not my favourite chapter, but I hope you're happy with it.**

**Review please!**


	13. Chapter 13 Dylan

**Well hi there.**

**Sorry if this chapter is a bit, ah... morbid. I'm listening to When I'm Gone (the one by Eminem) on repeat, and it's making me sad. But I just can't bring myself to change the song... **

**On the other hand, however, I have no idea where this chapter is going, so hey, it might be more random than any of the other chapters. But for some reason, I doubt it.**

**Max POV**

'So,' I said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes as we sat down to eat at the usual table in the eating hall. 'I need more answers.'

JJ slumped into her seat across from me and waved a fork in the air carelessly, narrowly missing Iggy's ear as he too sat down. ''Bout what?'

I considered. 'Well... for one thing, what's up with the therapists?'

'What do you mean, what's up with the therapists?' JJ frowned.

I rolled my eyes. 'Oh, come on. You're not telling me that they're qualified professionals are you?'

Iggy snorted. 'Agreed. My one kept trying to get me to tell him about my childhood, and then looked like he wanted to throw something against the wall when I refused to tell him anything. Like, throw a tantrum or something.'

'Well I liked mine,' Nudge contributed helpfully. 'I mean, he didn't really say anything, just like, listened to me talk... He looked kinda annoyed by the end though. And taken aback. I dunno why.'

'I do,' Iggy muttered under his breath and I grinned at him.

'And anyway, he was kinda cute,' Nudge tacked on as an afterthought and I held back a groan.

'Anyway,' I said before she could say anything else. 'You didn't actually end up answering my question. Are the therapists here qualified? Like, degree and stuff? Real professionals?'

Sam thought about it. 'Well...' he said slowly, 'some of them are. Like, I've got a good one who actually knows what she's doing, but I'm pretty sure that most of them were picked up off of the street and offered a huge wad of cash to do the job.'

Right...

'Okay, next question,' I said. 'I need more explanation about the whole thing you were talking about where the therapists take the kids away and they come back with a whole new persona.'

'Shoot.'

'Okay.' I stopped for a moment and then continued. 'About it... do they all come back? Like, do _all _the kids return? Or do some... I dunno. Do some just disappear?'

A quiet had fallen over the table and I saw the four of them (Lissa, Sam, JJ and Aedon) exchange glances. Fang has stopped eating and was watching them carefully with his dark eyes, face expressionless as always. Iggy and Nudge had halted their quiet conversation and were listening with serious faces.

Aedon sighed. 'I've been here longest, so I know the most,' he told us. 'Got landed in the place almost a year ago now. And in that time, yeah, people have gone missing.'

He stopped talking, so I gestured for him to continue.

'It was a guy called Dylan. Nice guy, really friendly. Bit thick in the head. He used to sit with us, just like Ella did. But the thing is, he was one of those problem kids. The ones that speak their mind about what they think is right. And you know what? Some of the regulations at this place weren't up to his standards. So, of course, he let Steve Allen know about it. Publicly. One time at dinner, he just told us that he'd had 'enough of this crap' and walked right up to the director and dumped his entire plate on his head. After that, he proceeded to tell him _exactly _what he thought of this place, making sure that _everyone _could hear him.

'Now, the director didn't like that. At all. You see, he makes out to be this kind friendly figure when you first meet him, but after a time you catch a glimpse of what he really is inside: A cold-blooded murderer. Dylan happened to be his next victim. About a week after the whole incident happened, Dylan went missing. No-one knew what had happened to him, only that the last anyone had seen of him was when he went in for his therapy session. And that's the last anyone's seen of him since,' Aedon finished, shrugging.

I rested my head on my hands as I thought. Another, more sinister, development in this kidnapping therapist conspiracy. Interesting.

I wondered what had become of the Dylan kid. He hadn't ever returned to Gold Creek Correctional Facility, but what did that mean? Was he dead – had they killed him? Or was he still alive? Like, transferred to another juvy hall or something?

Although the latter option seemed more likely, for some reason, I couldn't force myself to believe it. It was the former that really seemed more believable, god knows why. But I didn't want to believe it.

I could tell that Iggy and Nudge were musing about it as well – for once, Nudge was quiet. Iggy was playing absently with his fork as he stared off into space.

I couldn't tell what Fang was thinking about. He was staring down at his plate with his fringe covering his face. I think his eyes were closed.

All of a sudden, with Aedon's tale, the mood in the air was a helluva lot less happy. Now it was moody and sad. Yay.

I sighed impatiently. 'Well, as cheerful as this is, we're being taken to our 'school' classes in about two minutes, so we might as well get ready,' I said with a forced sarcastic tone in my voice. 'Let's get going.' Hey, that's my version of lightening up the mood, don't knock it.

I got up with my plate of uneaten food and dumped it in the bin just as I heard the now-familiar gong that signalled the end of lunch time and the start of 'school'. I heard Steve Allen's cheerful voice ring out across the hall. 'Guess what, everybody! Time for class! Off you go, don't keep your teachers waiting!' He clapped his hands together and I heard the familiar scrape as chairs were pushed back and the kids started to leave the hall.

I turned from the bin and studied the director's beaming face carefully. Was this man really a murderer? Did he really dispose of Dylan in that way? It was obvious Aedon and the others believed it, but looking at the broad smile on his face now, I found the very idea ludicrous. That grin was genuinely happy and innocent... right?

Ugh. This is too confusing for me at the moment. I shook my head in frustration and turned back to where Brigid and my fellow newbies were waiting for me impatiently by the door. As I joined them, Brigid gave me a venomous glare, making me even more confused than I already was. _Huh?_ What did I do?

She trotted off down the corridor and we followed behind quickly. When we were introduced to our teacher, Miss Northey, (we'd all been placed in the same class, apparently) Brigid told us to sit down and then left without a backward glance. What's gotten into _her _pants?

I shook my head and tried to concentrate. I'd deal with all my racing thoughts later, whenever I had the time. When would that be?

I groaned and flopped onto the bottom bunk in my cell tiredly, ignoring Nudge's protests about it being _her _bed I was squishing. Free time in our cells till dinner. Thank god. I could try get rid of this headache I'd received during school.

School was a joke. A complete and utter waste of time. We had an hour a day to complete seven subjects, which meant less than ten minutes on each subject. Naturally, I hadn't written down a single word, let alone complete any of the tasks we were given.

Miss Northey was relatively cool, I s'pose. Kinda kooky and weird, but nice enough. She tried hard to get us to listen, but it was as if the kids knew that they were in one place where they wouldn't get punished for not doing the right thing. They were different in the classroom, freer in their talking and laughing and mucking around. It was like, outside the room they were all subdued and quiet, hard to get two words out of. But when there was only Miss Northey around to try and control them, they were louder, more stubborn and they didn't mind speaking out of turn. Miss had absolutely zero control.

I felt a kick in my side and I turned to glare at Nudge, where she was glaring back, hands on her hips petulantly.

'Hey!' I complained. 'What was that for?'

She tutted. 'That's _my _bed you're ruining, missy. Now get up.'

I groaned dramatically and threw a hand over my eyes. 'I can't. I think I'm stuck.'

Her eyebrows rose. 'Oh really?' The next moment I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was jerked harshly out of my place and onto the cold floor. 'Hey!' I protested, sitting up and rubbing my poor sore head. 'Not nice.'

Nudge giggled from where she had retaken ownership of her bed and was sitting on it delicately, smiling at me. 'You're not as tough as you make out Max,' she teased. I gave her my special death glare, but didn't bother to reply. Such a stupid statement wasn't worth a reply. I am _obviously _as tough as I make out to be. Sheesh.

Instead, I picked myself up from the ground and sprung up easily onto the top bunk, almost hitting my head on the roof of the cell in the process.

I waited patiently for the conversation that I knew Nudge was bound to start any moment. I didn't have to wait for too long. 'Hey... Max?' She asked in an uncharacteristically hesitant voice.

'Mmm?'

'Do you... do you think Iggy's kind of... you know... Cute?'

I snickered. Truth be told, Iggy wasn't half bad. In fact, he really was pretty good looking. But I wasn't going to let Nudge know that.

'Why?' I responded. 'Do you?'

I swung my head over the edge of the bunk so that I could see her, and I wasn't surprised to see her that her mocha skin was a couple of shades darker than normal, her version of a blush. Quite obviously, she did.

'No!' She protested, but when I raised my eyebrows she blushed even darker. 'Well, maybe. I mean, well... yeah. I do.' She lay back on the bed and stared up at me. '_And _he's really smart and funny. Did you know he likes to make bombs? How cool is that? I love fire. I never realised it before, but Iggy made me realise how awesome it really is. And sometimes he gives me this really adorable smile and it's just _so _cute and he says that he can cook too, which is always good in a man and he's really sporty and – '

'You have a crush on him.' I stated.

By now Nudge was the darkest I'd ever seen her. She stuttered a bit and then shiftily said, 'Well, _maybe... _I mean, I don't know! I'm confused!' She looked at me pleadingly, as though she was expecting _me _to give her relationship advice. Clearly, she didn't know that I'd never even _liked _someone, let alone had a boyfriend.

I sat back on my bed. 'Nudge, you've known him for less than two days.' I told her matter of factly. 'You don't have to decide straight away you know.'

I heard her sigh below me, but I interrupted before she could say anything. 'Anyway, we have more important things to discuss than boys. Such as this Dylan person, who is apparently MIA.'

'What about him?' Nudge said grumpily. Obviously she didn't find this topic nearly as interesting as her precious Iggy. I bit back an impatient retort.

'Well...' I said slowly. 'Do you really think he's dead? That seems to be what Aedon and the others believe, but I for one am not so sure.'

'Well I don't know Max.' Nudge said. 'I mean, he's _probably _dead, considering the creepiness that these therapists here have, but he might be alive somewhere. But how are we supposed to know?'

I didn't give her a response, so after a moment, she quickly managed to change the subject once more onto some random nail polish colour that is supposedly the prettiest thing ever (that's how she made it sound anyway) and by the time dinner came around the subject of speech was once again Iggy. (Did you know that he once was able to cook fourteen waffles at once and not burn a single one? OMG, right? ... Sarcasm.)

Meanwhile, Nudge's constant chatter had given me the opportunity to truly consider the whole Dylan situation and I had come to a conclusion. Dylan was alive. I was sure of it.

I wondered if I'd ever be able to find him.

**Sudden stop much?**

**You see, **_**this **_**is why I need a real plan of what I'm going to write about when I do my chapters. Somehow, in this chapter I managed to drag Dylan into the mix which I had absolutely **_**no **_**intention of doing (I swore I was going to keep him out of the story... but hey, will you look who has appeared? God.) **_**and **_**I got Nudge to ramble on about Iggy. Gosh. Also no intention of doing that for a **_**long **_**time yet. (As I said. They have spent a single night in the place. She should **_**not **_**have a crush on him so soon.)**

**Anyway, I would now like to take the opportunity to say that the words 'dingle' and 'deluded' are pure awesomeness. **

**That is all.**

**Review please! (And when you do, mind telling me some good books to read or music to listen to or something? I am on the lookout for more of such things at the moment. Thanks.)**

**P.S – I just realised that I spend a lot of time in my ANs ranting about how crappy a chapter is. Sorry about that. I try to be positive, but I never seem to be content with my own writing. Again, sorry. :/**


	14. Chapter 14 Phonecalls Home

**Uh... not much to say before I start this... you get a change of character! Yay! Um, and thanks for all the recommendations for the books and music you guys gave me for last chapter. Big help. :)**

**So, uh, enjoy.**

Angel wasn't happy. She hadn't really been happy since Iggy left, a week ago. She didn't know why it was such a big deal that he had to be taken away to a correctional centre. Like, she'd heard it was the mayor's car that Iggy had blown up, but why was that such a huge thing? The mayor could buy another one, right? Iggy used to blow things up constantly. Angel didn't understand why this time was different to all the others.

Ever since Iggy had been taken away, not a lot had been happening in the Griffith household. Mom and dad had been surprisingly relaxed and less uptight, which Angel found weird. Gazzy had seemed to lose all his liveliness and had stayed in his room most days – excluding school – which basically resembled what Angel had done as well. Neither of them felt like talking to their parents – the adults had never seemed to get along very well with the kids. Sure, Angel was only nine and Gazzy was eleven, but they sure could be little demons from hell when they wanted to be. Which was ironic, considering Angel's name.

There was a knock on Angel's closed door and before she could answer it opened to reveal Gazzy looking down at her.

'Can I come in?' he asked and she nodded. Gazzy closed the door and sat down on her bed, knocking aside her old and very treasured angel bear Celeste as he did so. Then he just stared at Angel.

She waited for him to say something, but he stayed silent, almost as if he was waiting for _her _to break the silence.

But, in fact, eventually neither of them were the ones to do it.

After about a minute of the two of them staring at each other in silence, a noise started outside the shut door and Gazzy and Angel stopped their staring competition and turned their heads simultaneously to look at it. It sounded like someone arguing. Coming closer.

'No! No that is not what you agreed with, Stevens!' someone recognisable as their mother snapped outside as she walked past in the hallway.

There was silence for a couple of moments and then she said, 'You said you'd detain the boy for a year and then dispose of him! What happened to that?'

On the phone? Angel wondered. She wanted to know what her mum was going on about. It didn't sound like a very nice topic, honestly. She got up off her bed and silently padded over to her door and pressed an ear against it, careful not to make a sound. Gazzy followed her. What could she say; they'd always been sneaky kids.

Her mum left out a sound of frustration. It sounded like she was at the other end of the hall by now. 'I don't want him coming back,' she snapped and after a few more seconds of silence said, 'James is not part of this household and he never will be! What do I want you to do about it? Just get rid of him, alright?' Then there was the snap of a phone closing, a frustrated shriek from their mum and sharp footsteps as she walked away. Then nothing.

There was silence in Angel's room. Gazzy was looking at her in horror and there was a tight feeling in Angel's chest and she couldn't figure out why it was present.

Finally, Gazzy whispered, 'They're gonna get rid of Ig?'

Angel shrugged helplessly. 'That's what it sounded like.'

'But – but they can't get chuck him out!' he protested. 'They can't! Right?' He looked at her pleadingly.

Again, all Angel could do was shrug. 'I... I don't think it sounded like they were just 'chucking him out', Gazzy,' she said slowly, and he looked at her in confusion.

'It just sounded like they were discussing something more sinister, you know?' she explained and Gazzy's mouth set in a determined line.

'Well then we just have to tell him, don't we?' he said.

**Max POV**

It was a week after Aedon's story about Dylan before anything else interesting happened.

Us four newbies had spent the past week fitting in – or, at least, trying. As hard as the four of us tried, we really didn't get on with anyone but the kids we'd met on our first night here. I tried talking to that girl, Ella Martinez, once, and she just gave me this blank look and walked away without a word. Yeah, real nice.

Other than that, I'd only had a couple more attempts at communicating with the others in Gold Creek Correctional Facility, and the results would always be the same. The kids treated us like we were a plague, something to be avoided at all costs. They'd give me this weird stare and then turn away mutely. It was actually very annoying. Do I smell bad or something?

But at the end of the first week, it was time to call home for the first time. I was told we got to phone home every fortnight, and JJ, Sam, Aedon and Lissa were all over the moon about it. Apparently, when your parents actually love you, you tend to miss your voices when you're separated from them. Wonder what that would be like.

I was interested to see how the other kids would handle this situation. You know, the ones that had been like, mummified by their therapists. Sam had pointed out a few more to us over the course of the week, and they were definitely creepy. If I believed in the supernatural, then I probably would mark them as zombies. Normal, human looking zombies. So I wanted to know how they would react to their parents' voices. Would they show actual affection? Or would they act like they did with everyone else; all distant and monotonous. Surely their parents would recognise that their child was not the same as he/she had been when they left home?

Nudge was in tears about the whole phone call thing. Her parents were in jail, she couldn't talk to them. Fang was pretty indifferent about the whole thing and stated that neither he nor his father would miss each other, so what was the point of calling home? Iggy was happy about it, although he said it was only because he would be able to talk to Gazzy and Angel. And me, well I was like Fang. My parents wouldn't miss me, and they sure as hell won't want to hear my voice. I'm a problem child. But I'm going to call them anyway, just because I don't want to be hanging around the phone booths like an idiot. And it'll probably piss them off too – that's a plus.

But hey, maybe they'll be glad to hear from me. Maybe they really have been wanting to hear my voice and clamouring to hear whether or not I've been fitting in alright and if the kids at this place have been picking on me or something. Yeah. That's likely. As likely as Fang starting to talk and Nudge going mute.

When we got to the booths, there were already dozens of kids milling around like sheep and it looked like we'd have to wait quite a while before we got a turn with the phone.

I sat down against the wall and Fang and Iggy joined me. Nudge had been excused from this 'activity', as the supervisors called it and was back in our cell, most likely crying her eyes out. Sam and co. had gone on ahead and were long lost in the swarm of kids. I hadn't seen them since breakfast.

Fang didn't seem to be in the mood for talking (as usual) so I turned to Iggy instead.

'Why do you love your Gazzy and Angel so much?' I asked abruptly.

He looked taken aback for a moment before saying, 'Well, it's kinda hard not to.'

'Explain,' I said with a frown and he shrugged.

'It's hard to put in to words,' he said. 'But they're just... irresistible, you know? Like, almost as if you can't help loving them. Angel's exactly what her name implies she is, and Gazzy's my partner in crime.'

'He's gonna grow up to be one hell of a delinquent, I bet,' I commented dryly.

Iggy laughed and nodded. 'Probably,' he admitted. 'I've taught him well.'

'Hmm...' I said. 'For some reason I doubt that's a good thing.'

'Yeah.'

There was a few moments of silence and then Iggy perked up and said, 'Look, there's a couple of free booths over there. Let's go.'

I stood up. 'You coming, Fang?' I asked and he shook his head.

'Nah. I'm not really interested in talking to dear old daddy. I'll wait here,' he said.

I shrugged dubiously. ''Kay.'

My conversation with the 'rents was quick and painful. I'll keep it to the bare minimum, but when I called they sounded off their faces, which never bodes well. Obviously, this meant that they didn't really keep tabs on what they were saying and so after maybe two decent sentences from them, I was already having insults hurled at me. I reacted harshly (meaning giving much more inventive insults than what they were giving me) and proceeded to hang up. Short and sweet. I don't think they even noticed I was gone.

Iggy seemed to be having a better time than me. He was actually smiling. So I decided to stick around and listen in.

Now, I know that eavesdropping is a bad thing to do and all, but really, it was a perfect opportunity. I was telling myself that I shouldn't, but eventually, my curiosity won over. And anyway – when have I been averse to doing bad things?

I kept my phone to my ear so that Iggy would think that I was still conversing with my parents, but in reality I could hear every word he was uttering.

'Okay Ange,' he was saying. 'I'll keep that in mind. Now how about you put me on to Gazzy? I have to go soon, so I want to talk to him. I love you. Bye.'

I turned slightly so that I could see Iggy properly. He was leaning against the wall with his arms wrapped around him, but he looked a lot happier than I'd seen him since I met him. His face brightened considerably when there was a noise on the other side of the line.

'Gazzer!' he said happily. 'Wassup my little buddy?'

I could hear faint sounds emitted from the phone, and from the sound of it, Ig's brother wasn't happy. Iggy obviously knew this too. 'Gasman?' he asked. 'What's wrong? ... No, Angel didn't mention anything to me. About what? ... Your mum wants to 'get rid of me'? Well yeah. Duh. We all know that mum and dad hate me, Gaz... Gazzy, don't worry, it's probably nothing... Yes, I'll be careful. I'll be fine, you're being paranoid.' Iggy's face was creased in a harsh frown by now and his foot tapped impatiently on the concrete floor. 'I'll look out for myself, okay. Nothing's going on.' I hung up on my phone and pretended to wait for Iggy to finish up. 'Bye Gazzy,' he said. 'See you soon. Love you... I know you love me back, don't deny it. Bye.'

He put the phone back on its holder and rolled his eyes at me as we began to walk back to where Fang was waiting. 'I swear, I have a strange brother,' he confided and I gave him the gesture to go on, as though I had no idea what he was talking about. 'He's come up with this weird conspiracy theory with Angel. _Apparently, _my parents and a guy called Stevens – the same Stevens that runs this place presumably – are in a plan together to bump me off and have me six feet under by the end of the year.' He shook his head. 'Weird little kids. Don't know where they come up with this stuff.'

We reached Fang and sat down again to wait for everyone else to get off the phones so we could go back to our cells. 'I mean,' Iggy went on, 'I might be a criminal, but I generally get on with people. I know half the people at our police station back home on a first name basis. Why would anyone want to kill _me?_'

'Mmm...' I tried to seem as though I was paying attention, but really I was deep in thought. I didn't think that Gazzy and Angel's theory was as wacky as Iggy did. After all, Gold Creek was majorly freaky. And after hearing what Stevens might have done to Dylan, I really didn't put it past him to try to kill Iggy as well.

I didn't say any of this of course.

But I really hoped that Iggy wouldn't take this new news as lightly as he seemed to be. Because he might be in real danger. And after making friends with him, I don't know how I would act if he went off with his therapist one day and never came back.

But it would probably be bad.

**Kinda fillerish? I don't know. You got some information from this at least. Um... next chapter will most likely be Fang central. I feel like I'm rejecting him and Nudge. But mostly him. Well Max and Iggy **_**are **_**my favourite characters... I can't help it :)**

**So. Holidays have come again (Australian holiday system is different to American) and tomorrow I'm going down to the coast with a couple of friends for five days, so you know what would be really awesome? If I came back to find my inbox clogged up with reviews. And alerts and favourites and stuff. But mainly reviews. So do you think you guys could do that for me? You know... review tonnes? Because that would be so awesome. Kthnx.**

**See you... soon. Not literally, I haven't ever seen any of you in real life, but... well you know what I mean. Yeah.**

**Review! :)**


	15. Chapter 15 Chatting With a Mute

**So guys. It is currently about have past twelve at night, but I'm determined to get a chapter up before I go to sleep. I had a really late night last night and early morning today, so you know what I've done? I've gone and filled up one of those empty two and a half litre bottles of juice with red cordial. And, as anyone who knows me will tell you, me + red cordial = more hyped than imaginable. So that's how I plan to stay awake while I write. Good thing that parents aren't here at the moment. They shall never find out about this encounter with a highly sugary drink. Muahaha.**

**And you know what? I could have had this done way earlier today, but I decided to waste the day away on Youtube instead, when I **_**knew **_**that I should have been writing this. It is so sad that I'm actually genuinely procrastinating on writing a **_**story.**_

**And onwards for the Fang-centred chapter! Fun.**

**Max POV**

'You need to be serious about this,' I said for the fifty billionth time that night, and for the fifty billionth time that night, Iggy rolled his eyes in that overdramatic way of his, which just served to tick me off even more.

'No, Max, I really don't,' he replied, setting his fork down as he sat back in his chair, looking wistfully at his empty breakfast plate. Why is it that these discussions always seemed to happen in the eating hall? It made no sense.

'What are we talking about?' Nudge questioned curiously from across the table, next to Lissa. She hadn't noticed our non-stop bickering all through breakfast time, apparently. Yes, a very observant person right there. She seemed to have recovered from her sadness yesterday when she couldn't talk to her parents though, which made me relieved. Last night she'd barely uttered a word to me when I came back, but this morning she was back to her loud, cheerful, chirpy self. Her eyes still had the tell tale signs of spilled tears, though.

Iggy huffed a sigh. 'It's nothing Nudge, don't worry – ' But I cut across him.

'_Iggy _received a very disturbing call from his little brother yesterday, and yet he refuses to believe that it was anything but a joke Gazzy was playing on him.' I explained, glaring across at Iggy.

'It _was_ a joke!' he insisted. 'You don't know the Gasman like I do! This is just the sort of thing he'd do. Mischievous to death.'

'Oh yeah, like he could act that well,' I argued, but before Iggy could retort, Fang interrupted us both.

'Will you two just _shut up?_' he snapped.

I stared at him. 'What?'

He gave me a look. 'I said _shut up. _As in, 'please stop freaking arguing, I am _this _close to snapping both your necks!''

I blinked. Violent much?

There was a small silence after that, before Iggy slowly drawled, 'Well, _someone's _in a good mood today...'

He didn't get much of an answer to that, just a quick glare. Looks like Fang had retreated back into his shell again. I decided to take his advice though and drop the argument. For now.

I had another dilemma to deal with now as well. A dilemma who happened to be named Fang. I didn't know what was with him really. We'd only been in this place a week, but I had at least managed to get to know some of the kids here a _little_ bit. Fang, however, was a different case. Out of all the people who I'd been introduced to at Gold Creek Correctional Centre, Fang was the most antisocial, the most closed off and the most unreadable. He just about never talked, or showed emotion, or really even interacted with us at all. At mealtimes, he'd arrive with Iggy, sit down at the table with us and eat his food without really acknowledging any of us. The same happened with exercise time and 'school'. Like, he hung around with us, but was more like some ghost following us around rather than an actual person. All in all, he was downright confusing. I didn't feel like I knew him at all.

But I planned on changing that.

The day passed slowly. I was waiting for my chance to corner Fang so that I could talk to him at least a little, but so far I'd had no luck. We'd had school first up, and Fang always sat next to Iggy, while I was near JJ. I suppose I could have chucked him some sort of note or something, like all the high school teens supposedly do, but Miss Northey has a sharp eye and a surprisingly no tolerance policy when it came to note writing. And anyway, he probably would have just ripped it up instead of reading it.

And then there was therapy after that. And as therapy was always _sooo _much fun, I would never give it up to talk to someone as boring as Fang. Not that I'd be allowed to do that. I mean, who would miss the chance to put Dr Bass on the edge of a cardiac arrest every day? Nobody, that's who.

When we finished with therapy, we got to hang out in our cells for a while, and then there was lunch. I kinda wanted to question him without anyone listening in or interrupting, so I didn't think while we ate would be a good time to do it. Which also cancelled out dinner, I guess.

When we were done with lunch, we were sent back to our cells for an hour, but after that was exercise.

Yeah... during exercise seemed like a good time to do it.

I'll leave it up to you to figure out whether that was sarcasm or not. Either way, that's when I'm doing it.

When we were collected from our cells by Ari that afternoon and taken to the little gym place that we did our exercise in, Fang headed directly for the weights, as he had done for the past week that we'd been here. He seemed to have some strange obsession with them. I joined him there, where he was steadily pumping whatever weights he was using.

I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly as I stood there watching him bench press, trying to find something to say. The thing is, that when it comes to Fang you just don't really know what to say. It's obvious to any senseless person that Fang is very quiet, so what are you supposed to ask him that will get more than a one word answer? A question that won't provoke him, that is.

Fang set down the weights gently and gave me a questioning stare, as if asking 'What are you doing here?' He had a fair point, really. What _was _I doing there? It wasn't as if I had any real reason to talk to him, but I just felt like I wanted to get to know him for some reason.

So, after standing there for a few more moments in a sticky silence, I sat down gingerly and said, 'So... how many can you press?'

He blinked and then answered slowly, 'I don't know. Am I supposed to?'

I shrugged. 'I dunno.'

There was a few more seconds of thick awkwardness while I cast around for another topic to talk about. Yeah, I'm doing a real good job at this. Talking with people who hate to talk. It should be my profession.

'Well... do you miss home?' I asked and then it was his time to shrug.

'Not really. I've already told you about dad. If mum was around then I'd miss her. I didn't really have many friends at school though, so it's not that much different here.'

I nodded, taking it in. (I'd actually gotten him to speak in full sentences!) 'I know where you're coming from. I have the same thoughts. I've only known Nudge for like, seven days, but I already feel closer to her than anyone else I've met, you know?'

He nodded and gave me a half smile. 'Yeah. Same thing with Iggy, even being the annoying pain in the ass he is.'

I laughed. 'It's amazing how some people can connect with each other.'

And just like that, we were actually talking. The awkwardness that had hung around thickly in the starters of the conversation soon evaporated, until I actually managed to make Fang _laugh. _Like, genuinely laugh. It was more of a chuckle, actually, but still. I count it as an achievement.

When exercise finished and we were taken away back to the eating hall for dinner, Iggy rejoined with Fang and Nudge caught up to me about half way there.

She was staring at me like I'd grown wings or something, so after a few irritated glares at her to try make her stop, I snapped, _'What?'_

'What went on back there?' She said instantly.

'Back where?'

'Exersise! You and Fang. Talking. _Huh?_ Honey, Fang does _not _talk. So how did you get him to?'

I lifted my shoulders helplessly. 'I don't know! I just felt like talking to him all day and so I did. Maybe he was just in a talkative mood or something. We have a lot in common, maybe that helped.'

'Mmhmm,' said Nudge, sounding utterly unconvinced. She skipped ahead of me and caught up to Iggy, yelling behind her as she did so, 'We'll talk about this after dinner, in our cell, Max!'

I shook my head slowly. 'I'm sure we will, Nudge.'

During dinner, I felt pretty content. I mean, wouldn't you if you got a mute guy to talk to you? I'd succeeded in my aims, and now Fang didn't feel like so much of a stranger to me. I knew a few of things about him and vice versa. And I'd also proven to myself that he really _wasn't _as violent as he acted sometimes, like he had at breakfast this morning.

And for some reason, that just made me feel real good about myself.

**I am highly unsatisfied with this chapter. Like, _highly_**__**unsatisfied. I know I complain about my chapters a lot (a habit that I'm trying to break) but **_**damn **_**this chapter sucks. So freaking boring.**

**I suppose now would be a good time to inform you guys that I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year (I'm **_**so **_**gonna fail), so you ain't gonna get any updates during November. I mean, it wouldn't be that different from usual, considering how long I usually take to update either way, but I just thought it would be nice to warn you. :)**

**Now, I'm just about ready to drop (I ran out of cordial... how did I manage to drink 2.5 litres? It doesn't make sense!) and it's like, two thirty in the morning. That took a long time to write.**

**Other than that, there's not much else to say, so just review please! While I go... sleep... –snores – **

**P.S – I would just like to boast to the world that this Friday I am going up to Sydney to see Paramore live. Anyone who knows me even slightly is aware that I love this band to death, so I'm gonna take the chance to say SUCK IT, BITCHES! I GET TO SEE THEM LIVE! AND OH MY GOD I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED. It's less than a week away. :D**


	16. Chapter 16 This Can't Be Good

**-hides- Two months isn't **_**that **_**long, is it? I'm sorry people! I told you I was doing NaNoWriMo (which I won, by the way :D) and I suppose it just took me quite a while to get back in the mood to update... Sorry! I'm on holidays now, so hopefully they'll be coming faster. Also, I recently became obsessed with jigsaw puzzles (weird, I know) and they're been taking up sooo much of my time.**

**Oh, and about the whole Paramore concert thing I mentioned last chapter? I know it was ages ago, but I still can't believe how flipping amazing it was. Like, seriously one of the best nights of my life. If you ever get the chance to see them live, TAKE IT. Then again, it won't be the same now that that Josh and Zac Farro decided to leave. Ugh. I nearly ripped up all my posters of them when I heard that news. Sigh. :(**

**Anyway, this is **_**mainly **_**filler, but hey, things start to pick up after this. Expect excitement. ;) **

**Enjoy!**

**Max POV**

The next month was quiet. Or, at least, quiet in my terms.I was quickly able to settle into a routine that got my through the days. At meal times I would sit down with my 'group' at our own little table, and, as per usual, we would be the only ones who would show any life at all in the entire room. Then I'd go to either exercise, 'school' (I refuse to remove the inverted commas) or therapy. I have to say, therapy was by far my favourite. The fact is that Dr Bass is amazingly easy to wind up and doing so is pretty much the highlight of my life at the present time. There isn't exactly that much entertainment offered at Gold Creek Correctional Facility, surprisingly enough. That is, if you take away Iggy making a dumbass of himself alarmingly often. He is slightly worrying, that boy. It's like he _tries _to act like an idiot. And at the same time, there are times when just has these genius, NASA level moments that leave everyone at the table staring at him in shock. These moments generally include information about bombs, but whatever.

And anyway, it's an extraordinarily amusing sight to see Dr Bass turn as red as a cherry as he struggles to find words that will placate me for the day, while I through insult after insult at him, wondering just how he'll react this time. Maybe it's sad that these moments are the best things that come out of my day, but you take what you can get, right?

Meanwhile, ever since that conversation I had in the exercise room with Fang, he had opened up a hell of a lot. He was still the same Fang; quiet, reserved and blank faced, but he was willing to talk to the others if he was in the right mood and he was more passive, less likely to snap. I was glad for that. I would never admit it out loud, but whenever he had one of his 'violent' moments, he was freaking _scary, _man.

Fang had become closer to Nudge and Iggy also. Apart from me, they were pretty much the only ones he talked to. He would exchange a couple of words with JJ or Aedon occasionally (very occasionally), but that was about it. I had the feeling that he didn't like Sam for some reason, and he told me once that Lissa flirted with him far too much for his comfort. Go figure. I was happy to say that I was the one he was closest to, however. I was the one he talked to the most, the one he smiled at the most, the one he felt the most comfortable with. It was an awesome feeling, to know that he trusted me.

And then... then there was the thing with Nudge and Iggy. Honestly, that whole relationship was confusing. Maybe it's just my ineptness with boys talking here, but I just have no idea what's happening with them. Like, it's obvious by the way Nudge gushes about him that her crush is just progressing and they certainly flirt more than enough, but still, the whole thing just seems weird to me. I just... I dunno. They seem like they'd be better off as friends? But who am I to talk.

Other than all this, things had been quiet at Gold Creek Correctional Facility. I was attempting to keep my head down, and so far I thought I was doing pretty damn job at it. I mean, me being me, I would have expected that by now every staff member here would want to like, rip my head off or something, but I seem to get along with them all right. Or more like I just stay out of their way as much as possible. All except Ari. He and I were like magnets or something. It was like everywhere I went, he went too. But not in the stalkerish way or anything. He just always seemed to be around, and it was so bloody unnerving. He would always give me that creepy little smile of his and when he passed me he would always whisper "Having a nice day, piggie?" Ugh. Shiver. So creepy.

Apart from all these little things, almost nothing had happened at this place. It was just the same monotonous routine every day, from seven o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night.

I should have known that it would never last.

When does anything ever go right for me? Maybe I'm acting like a whiny little bitch by saying this, but seriously? Can I seriously not catch a break? Ever since I started hanging around with Alicia and her little gang, my life just went from bad to worse. I mean, maybe it's my own fault that I got caught up in all this shit, but I swear my life is not normal. This does not happen to most people.

When I walked into the breakfast hall that day, there was a buzz of excitement in the air that immediately made me frown. What was going on?

I sat down at the usual table and Nudge, who was the only one already present, turned to me, her mouth open in a wide grin and her eyes alight with expectation. She reminded me of an overexcited puppy and I was instantly wary of what had made her that way.

'Did you hear?' she demanded instantly.

'Hear what?' I replied, tucking into my bacon and eggs. They tasted like rubber, but whatever. If that's what was going to keep me alive, then so be it.

She gaped at me. 'You haven't heard yet?' she asked in a shocked tone, and I rolled my eyes. As sweet and friendly Nudge was, sometimes I _did _see the annoying preppy side of her show through. But only sometimes.

'It was on the notice board yesterday,' Nudge continued. '_Everybody's _talking about it!'

'There's a notice board?' I questioned.

Nudge did a facepalm. Yes, a real life facepalm. I know, I was surprised too. 'You are so strange Max,' she told me and I just shrugged.

'Are you going to tell me or what?' I asked her.

She nodded so ferociously that she looked like one of those weird bobble head dolls. 'Of course. It would be so mean to keep you in the dark.' She paused and I waited patiently for her to continue. 'You might want to do a drum roll,' she told me, 'because... There's a new girl coming!'

She waited for my reaction and when I just continued to eat, she scoffed. 'Max! Stop being boring! Give me a cool reaction!'

I just looked at her, and she scowled. 'Fine. Be a party pooper.'

I sighed as Iggy and Fang joined us at the table, their trays laden with food. I nodded at them before saying to Nudge, 'Fine. What do you know about her so far?'

Nudge shrugged. 'Not a whole lot. It's not like they're gonna put her entire biography on the notice board, you know? It said that she was a girl, obviously, and that she was seventeen, and that she was transferring from another correctional facility. Apparently she was making a nuisance of herself there. But other than that, nothing. They didn't even tell us the name.' Nudge let a small pout form on her lips and I couldn't help but smile.

'I assume we're talking about the new kid?' Iggy said through a mouthful of egg. I wrinkled my nose. Charming.

Nudge whacked his arm. 'Don't talk with your mouth full,' she scolded him. 'It's not attractive.'

Iggy winked at her. 'But you know that everything I do is attractive,' he said slyly and Nudge blushed slightly.

See what I mean when I say flirting?

Throughout the day there was this whole tension in the air. It was barely perceptible, but it was there. Most of the kids didn't say anything about it, but they knew that someone was coming and they were excited about it. So they were human after all, huh? Who knew.

I wondered if this is what it had been like when the four of us (meaning me, Iggy, Nudge and Fang) had arrived. It probably would have been more excitement, seeing how there were four of us arriving then. It was only a month ago, but it seemed like forever. What happened to my plans of escape? This routine that I went through every day was driving me insane. I hadn't been outside in ages. I needed fresh air.

Finally, during lunch, she arrived.

The Director decided to make a big announcement about it, so he banged his gong twice to get our attention.

As we turned to face him, we could see that his face was as disgustingly cheerful as always, a big smile on his lips and his eyes crinkled in a grin. Eck.

'Well, everyone, I'm sure you know what's happening today!' he shouted happily. There wasn't a whole lot of reaction among the crowd of teenagers (when was there ever?) but I saw a few nodding heads.

'So, our newest member of the family has just arrived and she'll be making her way in soon,' he said to us, clapping his hands together. 'You will treat her alright, yes?'

He sat down again and everyone turned away. They didn't look very interested and I had no doubt that they would treat this new kid like they had treated us; as though we barely existed.

About ten minutes later, there was a creaking as the doors opened and Ari strode in, trailed by who I presumed to be the girl we'd all been wondering about.

She was blonde, although she had dark brown streaks in her hair, and she was tall and slim, slightly taller than me. Her eyes were a blinding blue and she was wearing way too much make-up, but she still managed to be sickeningly pretty.

And the worst thing? I recognised her.

I let out a tiny gasp and shrank back in my seat, trying to remain unnoticed by _her._

The others noticed my reaction and twisted to see what I was looking at. Nudge let out a small squeal when she saw who had arrived. 'Ooh!' she whispered. 'She gorgeous! I wonder if she's anything like me.'

She went on as we watched her get her food and look around for somewhere to seat. I was listening though. I was just praying in my mind. _Don't let her see me, don't let her see me, please, please don't let her see me..._

But then, I never could catch a break.

Lissa realised that the girl didn't have anywhere to go and the next moment she had called out to her across the room, turning heads all over the place. I swore loudly in my mind.

The girl's head twisted around and I smile crossed her mouth as she saw Lissa's waving hand.

I shrank down further in my seat and she started across towards us.

Fuuuccc –

'Hi! I'm Lissa. Would you like to sit with us?' Lissa said brightly, smiling at the girl.

'Of course,' _she _said, sitting down.

She hadn't seen me yet. When would she notice?

'This is Aedon,' Lissa introduced. 'And Nudge and Sam,' she went on, pointing at each person as she went. 'And JJ and Iggy and Fang.'

And finally she looked at me, the only one unintroduced. She had smiled politely at the others, but instantly her smile morphed into one of a predator's as she recognised me. Ohhh, crap.

'And – '

'Max,' she finished for Lissa. 'I know. We've... met.'

I smiled weakly as everyone looked at me in surprise.

'Hey, Alicia,' I said. 'Long time, no see, huh?'

**Dun, dun duuunnn. Okay, so maybe it wasn't so fillerish after all. Whatever. But look! Alicia has returned! You guys remember her, right? From way back in the first chapter? Ooh, yeah, she's back, baby.**

**Anyway, sorry for the late update, but I just **_**had **_**to update for Christmas. I'm not so sure about this chapter, but does it make up for it?**

**It's 11:16pm on the twenty-fourth right now, sooo MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope you guys have a wonderful day. :)**

**Review, **_**please. **_**For a Christmas present? Please?**

**P.S- Australians get Christmas a day before Americans! Hah! Less than three! :)**


	17. Chapter 17 Meeting Alicia

**...Well. I got my first death threats last chapter. I feel rather accomplished, if I do say so myself. Yeah. I'm rather proud of myself. :)**

**Okay. I really don't have much to say right now (maybe that's because for once I'm not apologising for being a crappy updater...) so... yeah.**

**Enjoy. :)**

**Max POV**

I could still feel everybody staring at me as Alicia took a seat at the table, as much as I tried to ignore them.

'You know her, Max?' Nudge asked in surprise, looking between me and Alicia.

I swallowed. _Play it cool, Max, play it cool... _'Um, yeah. We, uh, went to school together.'

'We got arrested on the same night, too,' Alicia commented conversationally. She looked at her food in distaste. 'Do we really have to eat this shit?'

'Wait, wait,' Iggy interrupted, holding up his hands. 'You guys got arrested for the same crime... right?'

Alicia rolled her eyes at him before nodding. 'Yeah,' she said in a _duh _tone of voice. 'Of course.' She looked at me with sharp eyes. 'You didn't tell them about me, _Max?'_

I shook my head silently.

'Why not? We're friends, right?' There was a dangerous tone to her voice and it was right then that I knew I was in deep shit.

'Oh, don't worry. She didn't tell us much about her crime at all,' JJ said airily. 'Don't be offended that you weren't mentioned much.'

Alicia nodded after a moment and seemed to put it behind her for the time being, but I was still worried.

You see, here's the thing about Alicia. She always seems so nice at the start, drawing you in, making you do stupid crap that you would never normally do, and then, if you do anything the slightest thing wrong, she turns Bitch Queen on you. I wasn't sure what I had actually done wrong this time, exactly, but I was certain that this was one of those times. And even though everyone knows that I'm the kickass, totally awesome Maximum Ride, there are still times when Alicia can contest even _me. _Of course, she didn't know how badass I could actually be. Back when we were 'friends' (please note the quotation marks – and was it really only just over a month ago?) I would always let her walk all over me.

But not anymore.

Something had changed in me in the month (and a bit) that I'd been in this place. It wasn't an obvious difference, not something you'd pick up on straight away. But now I was a lot more confident than I had been, ever before. And I was pretty damn confident to start with. I had too much attitude in the first place, now I was probably completely unbearable. I'd been honing my skills on my therapist. I was a smartass extraordinaire. And meeting Nudge and Fang and Co. couldn't hurt either. **(Looking back on all this... I've said that Max is kickass, badass and a smartass. Just thought I should point that out. She's very... assish.)**

So... totally not being Alicia's doormat anymore. Glad we got that cleared up.

Tapping back into the conversation, I could see that it was progressing pretty normally, thankfully. No more attention was directed to me and Alicia, which I appreciated. She jokingly explained to us that she had been transferred from another detention centre ("I think I might have been a bit troublesome – they couldn't get rid of me fast enough!") and would be staying here for the rest of her sentence, which was considerably larger than mine, I might add. Maybe because she freaking _stabbed _a guy.

I also noticed that when she was describing the crime we had committed together, she left out all the violent bits. Maybe she regretted things? ...Nah. Impossible.

Either way, the table was sure warming up to her. She had them continuously laughing and Nudge was firing off question after question after question until even Alicia was starting to get tired of her. And Alicia _loves _to talk. Especially about herself. I think she just adores the sound of her own voice.

I sat there in silence, listening to the conversation around me, noting with relief that Fang was the only one who remained aloof to Alicia, waiting impatiently for the director to bang the gong, signalling that it was time to go to therapy. I needed to get away from her. Her friendliness was only putting me on guard. She had plans. This time I'm not just being paranoid, I swear. She was going to do something. Trust me, I know her.

When the gong did sound, I breathed a sigh of relief as everyone stood up to go off to their different therapists. Finally, I'd be able to escape from Alicia. She's been eyeing me all through lunch, like a hawk might view a rabbit that it wants to eat. Unnerving, frankly.

But I suppose that luck really hated me that day because when I got up to put my untouched food in the bin, she followed me, smirk firmly in place. I held in a groan.

'What do you want, Alicia?' I snapped, turning to face her.

Her eyebrows rose. 'Well, that's not very nice,' she said mildly, chucking her food, tray and all, into the trash. 'Aren't we _friends, _Maxie?'

I winced at the hated nickname. Behind Alicia I could see Brigid approaching and looking perfect as always, ever-present clipboard in hand.

I turned back to Alicia. 'I'm not friends with you,' I hissed at her. 'I'm not about to be friends with someone who is capable of _murder.'_

Alicia let out a laugh. '_That? _Are you still not over it, Maxie? That was nothing.'

I narrowed my eyes at her just as Brigid reached us. Then I spun again and stalked off to therapy, fuming. That _bitch. _Nothing? Stabbing a guy was _nothing? _She didn't seem so calm when she actually did it. No, if I remember correctly, she was bawling her eyes out and blaming it on _me._

But before I was out of earshot I heard Alicia call out after me, 'Remember, Max, it's either friends or enemies, nothing in between. Your pick.'

Dr Bass better damn well cheer me up.

**xxx**

When I got to therapy, my day turned from bloody crap to even worse.

You know why?

_Because Dr Bass wasn't there._

When I walked into the room, the man sitting at the desk in front of me was most certainly not good old Tony. Instead of having greasy, unwashed hair and creepily pale eyes, this guy had neat, _clean _brown hair streaked with grey and he wore heavy rimmed glasses over dark blue eyes. When he saw me he smiled pleasantly. Very un-Tony like.

I frowned and stepped outside to check the number on the door. Nope, I was at the right place.

I looked back at the man. 'Who are you?' I asked bluntly.

He smiled. 'Sit down, Max.'

I sat in my usual chair warily while the man waited patiently.

'So? Who are you? And where's Tony?' I asked again.

Another smile. 'My name is Jeb Batchelder. Feel free to call me Jeb. I'm your new therapist.'

'What?' I said. 'What about Dr Bass? Me and him were close pals, you know.'

Jeb gave yet another smile. 'Frankly, Max, you're a very hard girl to deal with. Dr Bass just wasn't doing well enough with you. So now he has the new girl. Alicia Mart.' Alicia stole my therapist! And I had so much fun with him.

'And you think you'll be so much better?' I asked skeptically, an eyebrow raised.

'I do.'

'Like you said, Jeb, I'm a very hard girl to deal with. You sure you can handle me?'

'Well, I'm more qualified than Dr Bass is,' he offered.

'Oh. Well... wait,' I said as something clicked in my mind. 'Jeb Batchelder? Like, as in Ari Batchelder? Ari's your _son?'_

Jeb crossed his arms and frowned. 'He is.'

Well. That's interesting. I could work with this.

I leaned back in my chair and looked him up and down. He didn't _look_ like a push-over. Who knows. Maybe he'd actually take some work to break down.

'Well, alright,' I said casually, cracking my knuckles. 'Bring it.'

**xxx**

By the time therapy ended, I was more than annoyed. That jerk, Jeb or whatever his name was, he was right. He _was_ more than qualified that Dr Bass. It showed in the way that no matter how much I needled him all through the session, he just _wouldn't react!_ It was absolutely infuriating. Me, _Maximum Ride, _failing to piss someone off? What is this world coming to?

As I stormed out of the therapy room, Jeb calling a cheery goodbye after me, Ari entered, muttering something about how he 'needed to talk to Dad'. Whatever.

When I reached my cell, Nudge was already in there lying on her bunk and staring at the bottom of my bed with a dopey smile on her face. She grinned when she saw me. 'Heyyy, Max,' she said in a happy, sing-song voice.

I flopped down on the bed beside her, wondering what had put her in such a good mood. She flipped on her side so that she was facing me. 'What's gotten you in such a bad mood?'

I scowled, trying not to explode. 'I have a new therapist. And this one's actually _good _at his job! It's a nightmare!' I crossed my arms and legs tightly.

Nudge patted my arm sympathetically. 'That sucks, Max, it really does.' Then her grin returned. 'Guess what!'

I sighed tiredly. 'What, Nudge.'

She was practically bouncing up and down with excitement. 'Iggy told me he liked me!' she squealed. Her eyes took on a dreamy look.

I blinked. 'Whoo.'

She sighed and stilled. 'Come on, Max. Can you show enthusiasm for once?'

'Sorry, Nudge,' I said, immediately feeling guilty. 'I'm just in a really bad mood. Maybe... Fang... will react better.'

She scoffed. 'Yeah. Because he's all about puppies and rainbows.'

I sniggered. 'Uh-huh. Look, I'm happy for you, really. Does this mean you're going out or something?'

'The stage before that,' she corrected.

'Okay,' I said. Then you tell Iggy that if he hurts you, I'll beat his face in, m'kay?'

She giggled. 'Got it.' Then she jumped up. 'Now come on! Time for dinner.'

I sighed, knowing that I'd have to see Alicia again. Joy of joys.

'Let's go,' I said to Nudge.

When we got to the hall, there was something different. Everyone was already sitting at the table and Alicia was whispering something in a low voice to them, looking around cautiously as though she was afraid of getting caught. I was instantly suspicious.

I walked over to them with Nudge, our trays laden with food and then stopped when I was met with hostile glares. Um... what?

'Is it true?' Iggy asked me, his face set in an angry frown.

'Is what true?' I asked, sitting down and tucking into the food.

'You know what,' he snapped at me. I looked up, alarmed by his unfriendly tone.

'Uh, no, I don't,' I snapped back, still wondering what the heck was going on.

'You might as well give it up, Max,' Alicia said solemnly. When I looked over at her, I found that she had a smug smile plastered all over her face. Ohhh, God.

'We can't believe you'd do something like that,' JJ said, looking slightly hurt.

I looked at Nudge and found that she was just as bewildered as I. Well at least I wasn't the only left in the dark.

'Okay, Alicia,' I snarled. 'What crackpot story have you been telling them?'

'That one about what happened during your burglary,' Lissa hissed at me.

'What _crap_ have you been telling them, Alicia?' If they didn't tell me soon...

'Oh, only about how you tried to freaking _murder the security guard!_' Iggy exploded.

There was dead silence. I could feel Nudge gaping at me. And then...

'I did _what?'_

Alicia was dead.

**...Ta-da!**

**Okay. I'm getting yelled at by the parents to go to bed. Can't talk, gotta go.**

**But, I have a question for you! Who's better: Fred or George Weasley?**

**Review! :)**


	18. Chapter 18 Convincing

**My school started again. :( It's horrible! Bloody bitchy teachers not letting you listen to your iPod in class... I have made it my aim to sit in the corner in the back of the room in every class. I shall never get caught. –evil smile – **

**So, that story was just to distract you from the fact that I never update anymore, soo... enjoy. :)**

**Max POV**

I was fuming. Absolutely, utterly, completely _pissed._ I was going to freaking _kill _her. In the most painful, vile way possible, making sure that she suffers the entire way, I was going to _murder _her. Yeah. That sounds good.

And then, I would kill all the little blighters who I had come to call my 'friends' during my short stay here and put them all in the same grave together and making sure their bodies rot without anyone even knowing they were gone. I mean, come on! How _dare _they just follow what Alicia told them, not even questioning her one bit. They'd known her for less than a day, for God's sake! And yet she already has them following her around like docile rabbits. Didn't they know me better than this? Didn't they know that I wasn't the type to try and freaking _kill _someone? I mean, yes, I may have some... violent... tendencies, but honestly. This is just ridiculous.

'Um, Max?' Nudge's timid voice came from below me, from where we were lying on our bunks in the dark. Silenced had reigned since after dinner, where I had stormed out of the room after Iggy's hostile announcement. She had come in later when I had already settled into bed and quietly crawled onto her bottom bunk, for once not erupting with excited words. I'll admit that I was curious to whether or not she actually believed Alicia, but I stayed in my stony silence, stubbornly refusing to ask.

Now, half an hour later, I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling, waiting for her to continue like I knew she would. 'Yeah, Nudge?' I sighed.

'I- uh – I don't – I mean – well – did you really try to kill him?' she finally blurted out, sounding as though she was afraid of the answer.

I frowned, slightly upset that she even felt the need to ask that particular question. 'Of course not, Nudge. You should know that.'

I could hear the uncertainty in her voice. 'But... Alicia... she was pretty detailed in her description, Max. It was pretty convincing.'

'That's because it was _her _that did the stabbing,' I told her, hoping that she would believe me. I mean, it _was _true, after all. 'She just switched our roles in the whole mess.'

'Oh,' Nudge said, sounding relieved. 'Okay. I thought it might be something like that. I just couldn't believe that you would do something like that. Even with all the threats you make, I could never imagine you intentionally stabbing someone. Alicia, though, she's different.'

'Good to know someone's on my side,' I muttered under my breath.

'Well, Fang doesn't believe Alicia's tale either,' Nudge pointed out. 'But Iggy's pretty damn angry, man. I mean, _damn _he was pissed.'

I sighed. 'Of course _Iggy's _the one to overreact.'

'Well, he's pretty hurt, Max,' Nudge explained. 'I mean, apart from me and Fang, he was the one you were closest to here, right? And I guess he's what you could call the... the 'conspiracist' of our little group, I s'pose. He absorbed her story right up.'

'And he actually believes her?' I asked, slightly despairingly.

'Yeah,' Nudge muttered sadly. 'So did everyone else, too.'

'Great. Apart from Fang and now you, everyone thinks I'm a wannabe murderer?'

'Yeah... But look, you can convince them you know.'

'How?' I snapped. Maybe I was being deliberately difficult, but I was in a bad mood. A _really _bad mood.

'Tell them to look at the lengths of the sentences you've been given. Your's is six months shorter than Alicia's. If you were the one who stabbed the guy, why on earth would you be the one with the smaller sentence? Just get them to see logic, Max, and you'll be fine.'

I smiled and turned back over so that my face was shoved into my pillow. 'Yeah. Okay... thanks Nudge,' I said, my voice muffled by the pillow.

**xxx**

The next day when Nudge and I went down to breakfast in the morning, we deliberately sat at a different table to our normal one, although it was still close to the others. It was clear by the glares I was receiving that I wasn't welcome there, and obviously Nudge wasn't about to just up and abandon me. She was _loyal, _unlike some others I could mention.

Fang immediately headed for us when he saw that we had separated from the rest of the group, but Iggy just gave us an angry glare and sat down at the table with the others, frowning furiously at his food.

'I'm guessing that he was bitching to you about me all night last night?' I asked Fang sardonically.

He gave a short, mirthless laugh. 'You could say that,' he answered. 'I tried to reason with him, but...'

I shrugged. 'S'okay. I plan to talk to him today anyway. The others, I really couldn't care less if they believe me or not.'

He nodded. 'We didn't really get along with them anyway. Not that much.'

'They were pushy,' Nudge put in. 'And boring.'

I wondered subconsciously if they were only saying that because they were no longer on the other's good sides. Would they be thinking these things if they were still friends with them?

I shrugged. 'Whatever. As long as Alicia doesn't spread more BS about me I couldn't care less.'

I glanced over to the other table and watched Alicia chat with the others, Iggy laughing at one of her jokes, his eyes sparkling as he looked at her. I frowned and shook my head, looking back down at my meal. This was absurd. If these people were following Alicia already, then they were the most weak minded people I had ever met. And yet, somehow, they reminded me a lot of myself when I had first met her.

I stayed that way, staring at my plate, until the Stevens smashed the gong to signal to us that it was time to go to our one hour of school that we were required to do. And honestly, the chance to get away from my thoughts for a while was completely refreshing.

But I had something to do first.

I stood up and shoved my remaining food into the bin before striding over to Iggy and grabbing his shoulder, spinning him around so that he was facing me. 'Hey, what the hell?' he snapped. 'Oh – what do _you _want?' He tried to turn around again, but I gripped his shoulders so that he was unable to.

'Why do you believe her?' I demanded.

He scowled, but didn't answer.

I folded my arms and waited expectantly.

'Because she is obviously telling the truth?' he said at last in a fiery voice.

'No! She's not!' I insisted. 'I didn't stab her! Alicia did.' I glared at him defiantly, but he just sighed.

'Sure, Max. Whatever you say. I need to get to class.' And then he was gone.

Well, that didn't exactly work. I was going to have to try harder.

**xxx**

Angel hitched her backpack higher up on her shoulders and trudged through the water soaked streets on her way home from school. She was filthy, her face and clothes streaked with mud and grass, her hands and knees grazed and spotted with blood. She was blinking furiously to hold back the tears, but it was getting harder the closer she walked to the bus stop where her brother, Gazzy, would pick her up.

Melinda Yassley. That was her name. The girl in sixth grade, the one who always cornered Angel after school with her little cronies. They did it all the time and normally Angel was able to pick off the dirt and the remaining grass from whenever she fell before anyone would notice. If anyone picked up on something, she would brush it off as 'playing' or PE. They loved to shover her around, knock her to the ground and rip up her homework. She tried not to let it get to her. _They're stupid, _she told her. _Just big, stupid bullies. _But it was hard to convince herself.

Normally, Angel was able to hide the marks well enough that nobody would notice. But this time was different. This time it was raining and nobody was about to fall for the 'I was playing and fell' routine that she normally gave. She didn't know what she was going to say to Gazzy.

Angel let a scowl mar her pretty face. Iggy normally dealt with Melinda. He was a big high schooler and he was the only one she had told about what was going on. Melinda was terrified of him. But ever since he had gone off to – Gold Creek, was it? Ever since he had been sent to the detention place she had taken advantage of his absence and her bullying had become worse than ever. It was all her mum and dad's fault, she told herself. Because they were the ones that had sent him away.

She sighed as she continued along the path, kicking a stone out ahead of her. She didn't know why Melinda and Co. loved to pick on her so much. She was good in class and she had friends. It wasn't like she was some loner weirdo or anything. But then, why does any bully pick on anyone? Angel didn't know.

And then there was that teacher, the one who just couldn't – wait. What was that?

Angel stopped and looked around. She'd heard the whimper, she knew it. Like a wounded animal or something. Where was it coming from... there!

Angel spotted the puppy in the corner of the street, hardly a thirty centimetres high, a Scottie by the looks of it, jet black and apparently not owned. She hurried over to it quickly and picked it up, checking quickly to see that it was male.

'Hello,' she said softly, scratching its ears. 'What's your name, doggy? Do you have an owner?'

It looked up at her with big black eyes and then reached up and gave him a quick lick, making her wrinkle her nose.

'No tag...' she murmured. She thought. Would mum mind? Almost certainly. What if she was able to hide it from them? With Gazzy's expertise in mischief, she might be able to do it...

But it would take a lot of food... but mum never noticed when money went missing from their wallet. She was rich.

Angel smiled down at the dog. 'You've got a new home, puppy. I think I'll call you Total.'

**Yay filler chapters! Not the best chapter, but right now I don't really care, because I have a book that is waiting to be read on my bedside table. It starts with AN and ends with GEL. :) Gimme spoilers and I shall haunt you forever.**

**On another note, REVIEW! Please? :)**


	19. Chapter 19 Taken

**Hello! Guess what! You're not allowed to blame me for not updating in so long! Isn't that just dandy? Long story short, Fanfiction literally wouldn't let me put up my chapters, so these have been sitting on my computer, completed, for ages. Go check my profile for a more detailed explanation.**

**Anyway, I have one more done, so that'll be up in like, a week.**

**Max POV**

'The stupid!' _smack. _'Ignorant!' _smack! _'Traitorous!' _smack! _'_Idiot!' Bang!_

Fang leaned against the wall next to me, his eyebrows raised in bemusement as he watched me beat the crap out of the boxing bag in front of me, following the sack with his sharp eyes as it swung haphazardly at the force of my hits.

I sat down with a huff at the nearby chair and glared over to where Iggy was running flat out on the treadmill at the other side of the room breathlessly, his face red and sweaty with exertion. It was just after lunch and I'd already finished my therapy session with Jeb (who remained infuriatingly calm in my presence) and was just about to end with exercise.

I turned back to Fang, who was still watching me silently, waiting for me to continue. He seemed almost amused at my anger over Iggy's refusal to listen to me. Which certainly didn't help to soothe my frazzled nerves.

'I can't _believe _he won't talk to me!' I griped. 'Who does he think he is? Who does Alicia think _she _is, stealing my friends from me?' I crossed my arms tightly. 'It's not fair,' I said plaintively.

I'd already tried to talk to Iggy once more, after our school lessons earlier that morning, but I hadn't even managed to get a word in before he shot me a poisonous look and stormed off to join Aedon, who also glared at me before turning his back again. I'm not even going to pretend that their actions didn't hurt.

'Well maybe if you actually _did _something about it, instead of complaining to me about it, maybe then you'd get somewhere,' Fang suggested evenly.

'I'm not complaining!' I protested defensively. I struggled for a different word to use. 'I'm just...'

'Complaining.'

I scowled at him. Whatever.

Fang rolled his eyes. '_Fine. _If you won't do anything about it, I will. I'll talk to him tonight, 'kay?'

'You, talk? That's hard to believe,' I joked, my mood elevated by his promise. I was met with another roll of the eyes.

'Nice to know I'm being appreciated,' he sniped back. 'Maybe I won't do it after all.'

I leapt up instantly. 'No! No, I love you, you know that.' I immediately regretted my big mouth. I'd meant it in a friendly way but I couldn't help the light blush that was creeping up my neck. _I love you? _Honestly, Max?

Fang raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't react at my questionable choice of words, instead turning away and striding over to the vacant weights to do some reps.

I joined Nudge at the free treadmill and she grinned brightly at me. Then her smile faded and her eyes widened. 'You're red,' she said bluntly. Her eyes wandered over to a certain dark-haired boy across the room. 'And you were just talking to Fang.'

I narrowed my eyes at her. '_Not _what you think.'

'Mhmm,' Nudge said in that voice of hers that meant '_I don't believe you one bit, but I'll let it go because I'm not in the mood to argue.'_

I sighed, preferring not to pursue the topic. I knew that she would be on my case later. That was just Nudge – persistent to a fault.

I looked back over at Iggy and I caught his eye for a moment before he looked away, his mouth set in a hard line. I stared down at the moving mat underneath my thoughts racing through my brain. More like a single thought, really. _Why? _Why was Iggy so firmly entrenched in his position against me? Why had Alicia taken such drastic measures against me the moment she had reached this place? Why was Iggy being so openly aggressive to me? And _why _was he trailing Alicia around like she was some sort of messiah? Just... why was he behaving like such a _jackass?_ It was completely unlike the sarcastic, happy-go-lucky Iggy I had met on the bus a month ago. It was as though he had been replaced by an angry, irrational clone of himself. Fang better do a good on the guy.

I heard the siren-like bell go and the flurry of movement around me signalled that all the kids around me were stepping away from all their equipment and moving to leave the gym and go to their cells for a relax before dinner time.

By now I had gotten used to the other kids' robot like states, but it still struck me as more than slightly weird just how quiet everything was, how disciplined. It was almost unnatural that two hundred adolescents would be such an agreeable group, so obedient and unquestioning.

As Nudge and I broke away from the rest of the group and passed into our open cell, I caught sight of Ari standing at the end the hallway, his eyes trained on a small girl in the centre of the group with dark hair that hung halfway down her back in a gleaming wave. As he stared I could help a small shiver crawling up my spine. I had the feeling that something bad was going to happen to that girl.

**xxx**

During dinner, a man with a thick brown moustache and bushy eyebrows approached the same girl with a strangely serious expression on his face. The entire hall fell silent as he strode towards her, watching apprehensively as she trembled in her seat, staring up at him with wide eyes as he stood over her, his face unreadable.

He spoke a single word. 'Cassandra.'

And that was all it took. She burst into tears, hiding her face in her hands as her whole body shook with loud, raucous sobs. I could distinguish a single word between wails. 'No. No. No.'

The man flicked his wrist and moments later Ari had joined him, taking hold of the girl's arm.

A minute later, and all three of them had disappeared from sight.

**xxx**

Gazzy gazed down at the puppy with bright and excited eyes. A puppy! A real life puppy! He couldn't believe it. He'd always wanted a dog, but his parents had always firmly refused. He'd barely touched a dog before this moment. But now there was one here, right in his room before him. He reached out a hand and ran it over the dog's black fur, relishing in its soft, rabbit like texture. It looked at him with beady black eyes and he shivered with delight. His mind kept repeating the same two words: _a dog a dog a dog a dog._ He reminded himself of a broken record. He giggled aloud at the thought.

'Gaz?' Angel's little voice sounded and he glanced up from his position from the floor, unwillingly tearing his eyes from the dog in front of him.

'What?' He asked.

She bit her lip, lowering herself onto the floor beside him. 'Will you help me hide Total?' she asked. 'Mum and Dad will never let me keep him. We can't let them know that he's here.'

He rolled his eyes at her obvious inexperience at mischievous acts. 'It isn't a problem,' he said, trying to keep the superiority out of his voice. 'I'll help out.'

She beamed and threw her arms around my neck. 'Oh, thanks, Gazzy!' She grinned.

His eyes strayed to the dog once more and he contemplated exactly what he was going to do with it. Him, he reminded himself. The dog was a boy.

Gazzy nodded once, deciding his plan of action, and turned back to his sister to share his plan. 'This is what we do,' he said. 'We'll keep him outside during the day, underneath the big oak at the back of the garden. Mum and Dad never go up there, they'll never see him.'

'We can't leave him out there at night.'

Gazzy held up a finger to silence Angel. 'Hush,' he reprimanded. 'I wasn't finished.' He knew he was being... what was the word again? Patron-something? Patronizing? Yeah, that was it. He knew he was being patronizing, but he couldn't help it. She was just so _unexperienced._ 'Each night, before we go to bed, one of us takes Total into our room and keeps him quiet so that our parents don't know he's there. We'll take money from their wallets and buy food after school so that we can feed him. Voila. It's perfect.'

Angel looked at him sceptically. 'Sure?'

'Positive. Mum and Dad are so unaware of what we do with our lives. They'll never guess.'

She nodded slowly. 'Alright... if you say so.'

'I do.'

Angel scooped up Total in her arms and he let out a small yip. She shushed him quickly. 'Total! Mum's on the phone down stairs!' she whispered frantically.

The crept down the stairs quietly, desperately trying not to attract the attention of their harried mother, who was snapping something angrily into the phone.

Apart from the breathing of the three of them and the conversation of their mum, it was completely silent.

And so they couldn't help but listen in to their mum's whispered words.

'I don't care!' she said, obviously furious. A moment of silence. 'No! I mean it. He's been around long enough.'

Gazzy and Angel exchanged a panicked glance. They knew what their mum was talking about. It had been a topic of discussion around the house for almost a week now, although their parents didn't realise that their kids were aware of what they were talking about. They'd wanted Iggy gone for forever and a day and they were doing everything they could to make sure that his absence was permanent. It was becoming more and more likely as each day passed that when Iggy was released he wouldn't be coming back home. He would become a Ward of the State. Probably stay with the government until he was eighteen. And then he would start his own life away from them. Or, at least, that's what Angel and Gazzy thought was going to happen.

The idea of no Iggy for the rest of their lives was almost physically painful for the two of them.

On the phone, their mother had calmed down slightly and sounded more pleased than before. 'Yes. Yes, that right. No, he's not.' There was a long pause and when she answered it was clear that something had gone very right for her. 'Excellent. How long? Oh... that soon? No, it's good. Thank you, Mr Gapling. You've been a great help.' She let out a small laugh that sounded so purely _sinister _that it made Gazzy and Angel stare at each other with wide eyes. It could almost be described as a _cackle. _They'd never heard anything like that come from her. 'No more Iggy for long...' she whispered. And then the phone was dropped back on the hook.

**Huh. I forgot how fun writing this story was. Being evil is enormous fun, no? Hehehe. **

**I really should write in Gazzy point of view more often. He's extremely amusing.**

**REVIEW! :)**


	20. Chapter 20 Planning

**Why hellooo there. Aren't you so proud at how quickly I updated? I mean, never mind that I already had this chapter pre-written when I posted the last one, it's a quick update nonetheless.**

**So, enjoy.**

**Fang POV**

'You like her,' I said bluntly, sitting down beside Iggy on his bottom bunk, feeling the old and cheap wood groan and give a little as I put my whole weight on it.

He scowled at me from where he lay flat on his back with his hands behind his head. He'd been lying like that for the past twenty minutes, glaring at the bottom of my bunk like it had done him a personal wrong. And so I'd decided that it was the perfect time to interrogate him. Convince him that Max was right. That kind of thing.

'Who?' he snapped, turning slightly away from me so that he didn't have to look at me. I rolled my eyes in annoyance. I knew that he was going to be pissed when I sided with Max on this kind of thing, but seriously? Gotta get over it, man.

'You know who,' I said, keeping my voice calm and even. In all honesty, I was not quite sure _who _exactly he did like. Nudge, right? I wasn't good with the whole touchy feely thing. This was the first time I'd even breached the topic with him, and I was pretty much going out on a limb here, hoping that I didn't trip up and fall flat on my face. But... I was pretty sure it was Nudge. The signs were clear.

Iggy turned back towards me, but he kept his eyes averted. 'I guess you know, then,' he sighed.

'Um, yeah,' I said, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

'Was it really that obvious?' he winced. I nodded.

'Well, I know you don't understand why I like her,' he began. 'But you gotta understand, Fang, her case against Max is rock solid. And she's nice and funny and _drop dead gorgeous..._'

I frowned in confusion. 'What, who? Nudge?'

He gave me a look that told me that he was just as confused as I. 'Nudge? No! I was talking about Alicia!'

I leaned back against the wall behind me, my eyes widening. _Alicia? _He liked _Alicia? _But... why? I couldn't for the life of me understand why he would choose her. I mean, yes, she was 'drop dead gorgeous' as Iggy described her, but she was also manipulative, cruel and a liar. And, plus, he'd only known her for two days. Flighty or what?

He watched me and a look of comprehension suddenly crossed his face. 'You thought I liked Nudge?' he questioned, sitting up to see me better. I nodded silently and he fell back on his pillow. 'Oh. Well, I did, but not anymore.'

I raised an eyebrow and asked a question that I thought I already knew the answer to. 'And when did you stop liking her?'

Once again, he refused to meet my eyes. 'Um... when – when Alicia came. I guess.'

I didn't say anything, but I couldn't help but be slightly disappointed that he would drop Nudge so easily. It was so unfair to her that he would move on so quickly from someone like Nudge, who was sweet, nice and fragile. Not at all the type of person who would take something like this well. Especially when she was clearly not over _him. _She was obviously cut up by his 'betrayal', as Max referred to it. I felt like a father who had been let down by his only son.

Iggy looked at me imploringly, apparently picking up on the gist of my thoughts. 'You can't blame me though,' he reasoned. 'She's with Max! And Max isn't someone to hang out with anymore. She tried to kill the guy.' He nodded as though reassuring himself. 'Yeah. She was gonna kill him.'

'I'm also on Max's side,' I reminded him steadily.

He looked down at his nervously fiddling hands. 'I know,' he muttered. 'And I don't understand why.' He glared up at me. 'It makes no sense that you would side with someone like her. You're the most logical person I know.'

I roll my eyes impatiently. 'Come on, Iggy. You know Max better than that. Do you _really _think that she would stab someone?'

He said something under his breath.

'What?'

Iggy hesitated. Then he said, 'No.'

'So why are you being so stubborn about the whole thing?' I let some frustration creep into my voice.

'Because Alicia...' Iggy trailed off uncertainly.

'Alicia is _lying, _Iggy,' I told him quietly, watching for his reaction. 'Your silly little crush is getting in the way of your better judgement. You think you like her, but you don't. You just want to believe her because she seems so genuine. Just listen to Max's side of the story and you'll see.'

There was a long silence. I was trying to recall when I'd last spoken more than twenty words in a row and Iggy was looking conflicted.

Finally, he said softly, 'I'll think about it.'

**xxx**

**Max POV**

I flipped on my stomach and supported myself on my arms so that I could take easier to Nudge.

'So,' I drawled. 'Dinner was interesting.'

I could practically _feel _Nudge shiver from underneath me. She let out a groan. 'It was _creepy, _man,' she said. 'Did you see how terrified that girl was? Cassandra? She looked like she thought she was going to like, _die _or something.'

I bit my lip, wondering if it wouldn't be too over the top to tell Nudge that that was _exactly _what I thought was going to happen to her. 'I want to know why she was taken,' I wondered aloud. 'It wasn't like she was some raucous kid or anything.'

Nudge giggled. 'Imagine someone that tiny being a party animal or something,' she laughed. 'She was only like, four foot five. At the most. She'd probably be trampled.'

I smiled, but it quickly faded. 'You reckon this is the same thing that happened to that Dylan guy?' I asked her. 'You know, the one that Aedon told us about.'

There was a pause while Nudge considered. 'Could be,' she said after a while. 'It's certainly happened before, considering the way the rest of the people there reacted. They _knew _that something was happening as soon as the creepy moustache guy left his seat. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what was going on. Positive.'

I sighed in frustration. 'God, we don't even know what _is _going on, though,' I said angrily, punching my bed sheets. 'I mean, seriously, who does? All we know is that these kids get take by creepy guys and when they come back – if they come back – they have a completely different persona. And sometimes they disappear completely. But that's all we know.' My mouth twisted in dissatisfaction. 'I want to know more.'

Nudge moaned. 'Oh, Max, no,' she said. 'What are you up to now?'

I grinned, glad that she knew me so well. _At least I have one good friend here, _I thought bitterly, steering my mind from Iggy. _Two, _I corrected myself, remembering Fang's promise to try and help with the situation. _Two good friends. _

'You up for a little hide and seek?' I asked thoughtfully.

'No,' she said under her breath. 'Yeah,' she said a little louder. Obviously I hadn't meant to here the first part. 'Of course I am.'

'If you're not, I can do it with Fang on my own...'

'No, no. I'm in. Doesn't mean I have to be _enthusiastic _about it, though.'

'Kay.' I flipped on my back. 'You know that door near the exercise room? The big steel one that they told us led to the outdoors exercise area.'

'Mhmm,' Nudge said in confirmation.

'Well, we've never been inside it, have we? What if behind that door it wasn't the exercise place but something else?'

'They said it was closed for renovations.' Nudge was unconvinced.

'I was asking Aedon about it earlier, you know, before Alicia came, and he said that he hadn't even seen inside it and he's been here for _ages. _According to him, _no one's _been inside.'

'So you're saying we break in,' Nudge finished for me.

'Precisely. We do a little look see, yeah? Not that bad.'

'Unless we get caught. In which case, we are freaking screwed.'

I didn't answer that.

'We'll go over the details with Fang later, alright?' I said later. 'And get it done as soon as possible. It'll work out fine.'

Nudge was quiet for a moment but when she spoke again, a mischievous tone had leaked into her voice. 'About Fang...'

I groaned loudly. 'Nudge! Now? _Really?'_

'Well, what better time?' she protested. 'We're sitting here in bed doing absolutely nothing. We may as well talk about your crush.'

'He's not my crush,' I snapped defensively. 'He's my _friend.'_

She giggled. 'Max, today when you came over to me after to talking to him, you were like a beetroot!'

'Was not!'

'You were.' Nudge's gossiping nature was taking over. 'So. What exactly did he say to you to make you look like that. Normally you're so collected.'

'He didn't say anything,' I mumbled. I stopped for a moment and then continued, reasoning that I would have to tell her anyway. 'I _may _have told him that I loved him.'

I winced at her excited gasp.

'No!' I said. 'I didn't mean it that way. I meant it as a friend but it came out wrong.'

'Of course it did,' Nudge said, sounded awfully superior. 'You _never _tell a guy that you love him, or they _will _take it badly. Honestly, Max, are you hopeless or what?'

'Shut it,' I said warningly.

'I bet right now he's wondering why on earth you said that to him and he'll be wondering if you meant it in the flirty way or the friend way – '

'That one.'

'And he will be _so confused!' _She stopped rambling for a moment. 'And it's not as if I can't see why you would like him,' she continued conversationally. 'He's got that whole dark and mysterious, totally sexy aura about him and he's really smart, not to mention his looks. Don't get me started on his looks, hun.'

I was amused. 'Gee Nudge, are you sure it's _Iggy _you like?'

She scoffed, but quickly quieted. 'I honestly don't know anymore, Max. I want to like him, I really do, but gosh he's making it hard. He's just being such a bloody _jerk. _Completely unbearable.'

If she was close to me, I would have patted her shoulder. 'I've asked Fang to knock some sense into him. Hopefully he'll do a good job.'

'Maybe he can do this whole break in thing with us,' she said hopefully.

I snorted. 'Yeah. Maybe.'

Nudge yawned. 'I'm going to sleep now. 'Night Max.'

'Night,' I murmured.

But while Nudge was asleep, I was up for the majority of the night, my mind consumed by thoughts of Cassandra, Dylan, Iggy and Fang and when I finally got to sleep I had nightmares about Jeb dragging me away and there being unspeakable horrors behind the cold, metal door.

I woke up in a cold sweat with only one thought on my mind.

_What is behind that door?_

**Lots of talk, not a whole lot of action. But it's starting to build up! (Cue excited squeal...)**

**REVIEW! :) (As a reward for me updating so quick, maybe? :P)**


	21. Chapter 21 Forgiveness

**Oh, hai dere! Let's get to it quick. ;)**

**Max POV**

Iggy sought me out early the next morning, before I even had the chance to collect my breakfast in the food line. In fact, I had only just managed to pick up a plate before he found me.

He shifted awkwardly in front of me, obviously uncertain of what he was going to say to me. I waited patiently (well, not really, my stomach was growing ever demanding) while he searched for something to say. And finally he found it. 'Fang says that Alicia's lying,' he blurted out, his eyes fixed firmly on his sneakers. 'He says that I should listen to what you have to say before I make any assumptions.'

I raised an eyebrow. So Fang had chatted with him after all. Fancy that. Iggy slowly looked up and met my eyes, then he made a gesturing motion. 'So...?' He said it like a question.

I rolled my eyes. 'First off, you're a jackass,' I said and held up a hand when he went to say something. 'Don't you dare deny it. Second, I'm only here for a year before I get let out. Alicia's staying for twenty one months. If _I _was the one who stabbed him, why would I have the shorter sentence?'

His brow creased and I could tell that he was confused. 'What are you trying to say?'

'Work it out, Iggy.' Then I reached up and kissed on the cheek. Then I slapped him. And then I walked away. Dramatic, right? Well, what can I say? Interesting exits are my thing.

At the usual table, Fang and Nudge had watched the entire brief exchange in the background and now as I joined them, Nudge burst out laughing – drawing stares from right around the generally quiet hall – and Fang let a small smirk onto his face that let me know that he was amused. It disappeared quickly, though, and I got the feeling that there was something bothering him. But what?

'Oh, man, Max,' Nudge giggled. 'You sure know how to make an impression.' She pointed behind me. 'Look at him! Totally dumbstruck.'

I turned around and sure enough, Iggy was standing there, staring into space as though he was not quite aware of what had happened. I let out a barking laugh myself.

After our laughs had subsided, I questioned Nudge, 'So, you informed Fang of this plan of ours?'

She winced. 'Yours. Not _ours. _And no, I haven't. I was too busy laughing at the display you put on over there.'

I smiled. 'I _am _very amusing, I agree.'

'You're embarrassing, too, though, gotta admit.'

'People who worry about humiliation are stupid.' I grinned. 'You have to live while you can.'

'I've never heard of embarrassment as a good thing, though,' she pointed out, but Fang cut in before I could say anything else.

'_Anyway, _putting aside the good and bad points of dignity...' he began pointedly. 'What exactly is this _plan _of yours?' He looked at me.

Leaning in, I quickly outlined what we were going to do, watching as his face transformed from the usual emotionless gaze to a look of complete interest.

When I was done, he glanced around conspiratorially, as though to make sure nobody else had heard anything that I had said. Then he asked, 'Just the three of us, then?'

'And Iggy,' Nudge said.

I rolled my eyes at her. 'If Iggy decides to pull his head in then yes, him too,' I told Fang.

Fang sat back on his bench. 'So, how exactly are we going to be able to get out of our cells for long enough that no one will notice we're gone?'

I pondered that for a moment. It was, in truth, one of the (many) things that I had not considered in the foundations of the plan. I was stumped. How _were _we going to get out? The locks were electric, at the very top end of technological development, and I distinctly remembered Ari – or maybe it was Brigid – telling us that there were only three people in the building who knew the code: himself, Brigid and the Director, Alan Stevens. For some reason, I doubted any of them would be very willing to help us out.

I shook my head in defeat. 'I'm not sure,' I said, frowning. 'We'll work something out.'

I heard a timid clearing of the throat and I turned to Nudge. 'Yeah?'

'I may be able to help you with that problem,' she said slowly.

My eyebrows shot up. 'How?' I asked.

'I'm a hacker, remember, Max? It's what I got landed in here for.' She stopped and bit her lip. 'I got into a pretty intense network, then. I don't see why I wouldn't be able to do it now.' She gave me a hopeful smile.

I exchanged a glance with Fang. 'But you got caught that time, Nudge,' I pointed out.

'So we take some extra precautions to make sure that we're _not _caught this time,' she shrugged. 'It shouldn't be _impossible.'_

I nodded reluctantly, recognising the merit of the idea. 'I'll think about it,' I said finally. When her face lit up excitedly, I added warningly, 'But that doesn't mean I'm saying _yes._'

We lapsed into silence then, each eating our food. I was going over the plan in my mind, working out the kinks and bolts of the whole thing, adding details, making sure that it was a foolproof as I could possibly make it. It wasn't perfect, that was for sure. It was dangerous. There was a likelihood that we could be caught. What if there were guard stationed at night that we hadn't realised were there? What if the door was tougher to open then we counted on? What if the other prisoner kids decided to blab on us, for whatever reason? A thousand problems. I needed a thousand solutions.

There was a clearing of a throat above us and I looked up in surprise and irritation, shaken from my plotting. My eyebrows rose as I took in the strawberry blonde hair and the piercing blue eyes. 'What?'

Iggy looked supremely uncomfortable. 'Um, I asked Alicia about the sentence lengths,' he said, his expression telling me that he wanted to be anywhere but there. His fingers twisted together nervously.

'And...?' I trailed off, waiting for another lie that Alicia had fed him.

'She said that it was because she's older than you, and so they put the blame on her.'

My mouth twisted in a hard line. Of course. _Of course _she would say that.

Iggy flopped down into the seat next to me and I started in surprise. Wasn't he going to go back to Alicia and her little cronies?

He must've known what I was thinking, because he grinned at me, suddenly seeming more relaxed than he had done in ages. 'I know she's lying. I've dealt with the law before – I know they don't work that way.'

I grinned in relief. 'So you're back with us?' I asked.

'Totally,' he confirmed.

I looked at Nudge and Fang. They nodded at me and I took the go ahead.

'Well in that case, we have a _lot _to discuss.'

**xxx**

'And _what _number is Fang and Iggy's cell?' I quizzed Nudge, mindful to keep my voice low enough that nobody else could hear it.

'Thirty six,' she answered immediately. 'They're right at the end of the next hallway. Could be risky getting there.'

'And where is our target?' I continued.

'Right next to the gym. It's this big metal door that I doubt even a steamroller could crush. Totally intimidating.'

Nudge looked down at the standard suit that had been issued to us the day after we arrived, picking at it in dissatisfaction. It was made up of plain light grey material; a shapeless shirt and long, baggy pants. We were required to wear them instead of what we would normally choose to wear to 'promote equality among all people attending Gold Creek Correctional Facility'. At least, that's what Brigid told us when she delivered them to us. Not too sure that I agree.

'I wish we could have some darker clothes to put on,' Nudge complained now. 'I'm going to feel so exposed wearing these rags.'

I glanced up at the tiny barred window at the top of the room, able to catch only a glimpse of the bright stars that were shining through, specks of light on the dark canvas of space. 'It doesn't matter.' I checked the slim watch on my wrist. 'It's almost midnight. Nobody will be around.'

I slid off the bed, resisting the urge to clap my hand loudly like a drill sergeant. That would ruin everything. Instead, I simply said, 'Right. It's time. We're supposed to be at their cell by midnight.'

Nudge followed me over to the lock on our cell door. Her eyes were bright with anticipation, but she had turned a sickly pale colour that didn't mix with her dark skin. 'I feel like I'm about to throw up,' she whispered, leaning as far as she could around the bars so that she could see the number pad on the lock more clearly. As soon as she touched it, it lit up like a beacon (obviously touch sensitive) and I winced, hoping no one was awake to see. It was on the other side of the bars, which would cause some irritation, but Nudge had assured me that she would be able to work around it. Now, though, I wasn't so sure.

'You'll be alright though, yeah?' I asked, worry leaking into my tone.

She nodded. 'I can deal.'

As she set to work on the lock, I subconsciously noted that she was talking far less than usual. I wasn't used to her being so unwilling to converse. I hoped that it was just an effect of her anxiety over the mission.

I watched as her fingers flew across the number pad, her eyes intensely focused, her head bent in concentration. I saw a tiny bit of pink where her tongue protruded from her mouth a little, which made me smile.

She let out an irritated sigh and rocked back on her heels, a fierce frown forming. 'It's tough,' she said unwillingly. 'I didn't know it would be this hard.'

'Try again,' I urged, taking a quick look at my watch. We had three minutes before we had to be at Iggy and Fang's. And timing was crucial.

She hesitated, and then a look of determination overshadowed the frustration. 'Alright.'

Nudge set back to work and I tried to relax, but I couldn't help myself from taking glances at the watch every now and again.

Two and a half minutes.

'I think I might be getting somewhere!' Nudge's voice was excited.

Two minutes.

'Hang on...'

One and a half minutes.

My foot had started tapping. I was unable to hold my nerves. We had to get out _now _or we'd never make it.

One minute.

'I did it! I did it!' The elation was clear in Nudge's voice and I sprung to my feet like a Jack-in-the-Box as the door slowly swung open, released at last from its lock.

A huge grin spread across my face. 'Let's get out of here,' I ordered. 'We've got a minute to get to the others.'

'Oops!' Nudge squeaked, covering her mouth shamefully. 'Sorry.'

'Doesn't matter!' I said, buzzing with our success. 'We're out!'

We ran down the dark hall as fast and quietly as we could, praying that we'd make it in time and that nobody would wake up and raise the alarm. It was black all around us and we had trouble making out the numbers on the cell doors, but eventually we found the right place. By the time we got to Iggy and Fang, they were already pacing around their small space like trapped tigers and I heard audible sighs of relief as they caught sight of us.

'We thought you couldn't get out!' hissed Fang.

'Or that you'd forgotten about us!' Iggy put in over his shoulder.

I rolled my eyes at their antics as Nudge knelt at their lock. 'Chill,' I snapped. 'We're out and we're going to get you out. 'Kay?'

It took Nudge much less time to break the code this time round, now that she was familiar with the format. Barely a minutes had gone by when there was a hissing sound and the lock popped open, releasing the door.

Iggy and Fang scrambled out and Nudge stood. All eyes turned to me.

'Right.' I swallowed nervously and then gave a tight smile. My heart was beating in my throat. 'Let's go.'

**I **_**told **_**you the action was coming! Why would you ever doubt me?**

**Also, it hasn't been even two weeks since I last updated. I expect an award or something, people!**

**But reviews will suffice just fine. ;)**


	22. Chapter 22 The Door

**Alrightey!**

**I just have to reply to this review, because it was long, and it was anonymous. This annoys me greatly. **

**xXjaziXx: First off, thanks for the compliments. But seriously, get some sleep, girl! I mean, I'm being a total hypocrite by telling you that because I regularly stay up 'till around 3:00am, but I feel guilty that my story made you stay so late. But also proud. I'm glad you like it that much. :P**

**Hmm… I don't know, I really adore Fang, just not as much as the others. I think that Fang may be microscopically behind Iggy and Max on my favourite characters list. Not even. **_**Nanoscopically. **_**In fact, why don't we just lump all three of them together? Then everybody's happy!**

**Oh, and the whole updating thing? Trust me, I'm well aware of just how shitty my updating skills are. I actually only recently noticed that this story was started in 2009 and then I was totally ashamed of myself. Although in my defense, it **_**was**_** started VERY late '09 (gosh, what a lame excuse). But it will make you happy to know that I recently made it my goal to post chapters more frequently (and yes, I HAVE been succeeding).**

**Okay, I apologise for the length of the AN, but now that that's out of the way, let's continue!**

**(I just realised that my Word is set to US Spelling. So **_**that's **_**why it won't stop giving me the stupid little red lines… Okay, much better now.)**

**Max POV**

For a moment longer we stood there in the debilitating darkness, wondering exactly which way we were going to set off. In all honestly, the blackness that was enveloping the four of us was completely incapacitating and I had almost no idea where about I was. I'd really been too intent on making out the cell numbers in the darkness and I was just starting to realise that I'd never actually been in this area of the building before – after all, what need did I have to go and see Iggy and Fang often? Even if I wanted to, Ari would probably not even let me take twenty steps away from my own cell before pouncing and shoving me back inside my own little area that I shared with Nudge. Because he was just that kind of nice guy. A real sweetheart.

I turned to Fang. 'Alright, which way do you guys go to the eating hall? We can make our way from there.'

He wordlessly pointed to my right and after Iggy and Nudge had set off in that direction, I could just barely see a little smirk flicker across his face. He leaned down and whispered in my ear, 'Is the Great Maximum Ride _lost?'_

I spun around and started walking quickly, hoping he hadn't caught the hot flush that had shot up my cheeks at his words. Then again, if I was the 'Great Maximum Ride,' then he was 'Fang the Observant'. He didn't miss a _thing. _So of course he noticed.

But I shall deny it to my grave. 'No!' I hissed vehemently. 'I just think it will be easier if we start from there.'

'Mhhmm.'

I glared at him and then sped up, leveling with Iggy and Nudge. Both were quiet (quite a feat for Nudge, I'd imagine) but they looked excited, psyched up, with bright eyes that shone, ready for the challenge ahead them. I, myself, was buzzing with nerves and I could still feel my heart racing at a pace that was way above normal. This was by far the riskiest thing that I had ever done and I was getting antsier by the second, filled to the brim with anticipation.

Let's just hope that nothing goes wrong, huh?

Hah. What a wish to make. That's just _asking _for bad luck.

I was surprised at how different the eating hall looked at night time. It was as thought the darkness shrouding the room gave it a totally different persona, like it had multiple personality disorder or something. That is, if inanimate objects were liable to get disorders, I mean. It suddenly seemed so much more threatening than it had that morning. Like one wrong step could bring this whole operation of ours crashing around our feet, leaving us exposed and helpless.

It was a lot easier to see everything in the hall – it was one of the few rooms in the building that actually sported windows – and so I quickly spotted the door that I knew led to the exercise hall, and beyond that, our target, the mysterious metal door.

We headed off in that direction quickly and quietly and for the first time I wondered where the guards were stationed in this god forsaken place. I had never actually seen any except for Ari, who seemed to be _everywhere, _and the occasional black clad silhouette ringing the perimeter of the building. But inside the building? It was like they were fricken' ninjas. I'd never actually spotted a single one, but they had to be around _somewhere._ It wasn't like they were just going to leave the inside of the building totally unarmed and vulnerable. After all, this was the place where they kept all us prisoners locked up, herding us around like cattle. It was so much more dangerous in here than outside. So why did we never see any of the security? It was just weird and it made me suspicious, as though we were walking straight into a trap. But we couldn't just back out of our plan, not now when we've gotten so far already. It was better to push ahead, just take the consequences as they came.

Let's just hope that there _were _no consequences.

I repeat: thinking things like that is just _begging _for something to go wrong.

After about two minutes of sneaking through the deserted hallways as quietly as possible, we reached our destination. The door loomed up ahead of us out of the darkness and I felt my breath catch in my lungs as I took it in. It seemed dangerous. Dark. Threatening. Basically, it gave of all these bad vibes and as the four of us came to a rest and stared up at it, I felt a shiver pass down my spine.

I exchanged glances with the others. They had all gone as pale as me – even Fang, if you can believe that – and as I watched, Nudge licked her lips nervously.

I sighed once and nodded firmly, steeling myself for whatever was coming ahead.

I strode forward, the picture of confidence, and knelt down so that I could inspect the lock on the door better.

It was an ugly, heavy duty lock, made of thick steel that looked as though a sledgehammer would just bounce right off of it. It was manual, I could see, but above it was another electric lock, pulsing with an eerie soft white glow in the darkness, throwing off just enough light that I was able to make out the numbers on the pad. There was no door handle on the door. Other than these two locks, the entire thing seemed like just a wide expanse of grey metal.

I stood back and looked at the others. I gestured at Nudge. 'There's another one for you,' I told her and she made her forward, frowning in trepidation. She examined the lock swiftly before putting her hands to the pad and getting to work.

I looked at Iggy and Fang where they were standing of to the side, obviously waiting for something to do. 'Either of you good with lock picking?' I questioned.

There was a moments silence and then Iggy cleared his throat. 'Yeah. Yeah, I got a little experience with locks.'

I pointed out the manual lock that sat on the door. It looked like a monstrous silvery spider clinging there.

Iggy rubbed his hands together and pursed his lips. He glanced at me and Nudge. 'Do either of you have a bobby pin or something?' he asked. 'I can't do it with no equipment at all.'

I shook my head, but Nudge had already produced three pins from her pocket, handing them over to Iggy. 'I always keep a few with me,' she explained. 'You know, in case I need to tame this mane of mine quickly.'

I stood back with Fang, watching as Iggy and Nudge worked their way in. Both of them had looks of extreme concentration on their faces and I heard the occasional muttered curse as, say, a bobby pin broke or Nudge's hand slipped and messed up her progress.

We were silent for a while. And then, 'I feel so useless,' Fang said quietly, looking at the floor as if it had done him a personal wrong.

I looked at him in surprise, not expecting to hear such an utterance come from his lips. 'Why?' I asked, baffled.

He shrugged. 'I don't know. You're all doing stuff to help us, and I'm just sitting back here, along for the ride. I need to do something to help, but there's nothing that I _can _do.'

I frowned. I'd never realised that Fang had insecurities like this. There was a lot that we didn't know about Fang, but he'd always seemed so confident and self assured in everything that he did. It was weird to know that he had his doubts.

'Well,' I said slowly, 'it's not like we're done tonight, Fang. We haven't even gotten past this door yet. There'll probably be alarms that need to be turned off and someone like you would be perfect for the job. Plus, I haven't done anything tonight either.'

'You were the one who came up with the plan,' Fang pointed out. 'And Nudge and Iggy are following your orders.'

I bit my lip. 'I guess.'

We turned back to watching Iggy and Nudge while I tried to figure out something to say. It was true that Fang wasn't really doing much. But it wasn't like he was a third wheel or anything. We'd find _something _for him to do.

I opened my mouth to tell him this, but I was interrupted. It appeared that Nudge had cracked the code, and she was beaming from ear to ear, her face shining with pride and excitement.

'See?' Fang muttered. 'She's not useless. I am.'

I had started a retort, but I was cut off once again. Iggy had let out a quiet shout of victory and now as we watched, I heard a familiar hissing noise, reminiscent of that on the cell doors and the thick metal sheet slowly moved backward until we could see what was behind it.

And it was not like _anything _that I had expected.

**A short one, but I felt like cutting it off there. I'll probably update soon, so that I can sate **_**my **_**curiosity as well as yours. I barely even know what's behind the door myself. Fail, I know.**

**You know the drill. REVIEW! :)**


	23. Chapter 23 Secrets

**Ooh, school, how I hate thee. So, updating is slowing again (courtesy of an aforementioned place of horror) and I've had five big assignments and three tests already, only two weeks in. Ugh. Oh, and we did NAPLAN this week too (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy; basically a huge testing week that the entire country does). Most of it was incredibly easy.**

**So with that note out of the way, onwards!**

**Max POV**

In front of me was a wide, long corridor, completely white with that disgustingly clear air about it that I always associated with hospitals. There was not a speck of dirt in sight and I could just barely see the doors that were placed at intervals along the length of the wall, blending in so perfectly with the wall that I almost missed them. It seemed to lead to nowhere, ending in a flat metal wall after about two hundred metres of corridor and as I stared I couldn't help the shiver that was running up my spine. I hated places like this. Hated them. They'd always given me the creeps ever since the time when I was five years old and I needed to be taken to the doctors because I'd broken my arm when I fell out of a tree. I'd been mainly focusing on the pain then – my parents had been too negligent to even give me painkillers – but I remember a creeping feeling of uneasiness that had clung to me like a coat of dust for the entire duration of my stay. From that time on I'd avoided all medical facilities at all costs. The idea that it was a place entirely dedicated to sick and hurt people, the thought that there were people who actually died there, daily – it freaked me out even now.

I could feel the familiar sense of fear rising again as I stared down the empty white tunnel and I had to force myself to stay put, not to run back to my cell and sleep for days. Or, even better, out of the facility entirely, right across the country, even. Not home. Home had never been kind to me. Just somewhere that was _safe. _

But I pushed the sensation down, refused to let my legs move. I was _Maximum Ride _for God's sake. I didn't run from scary ghosts. That was stupid.

Fang let out a long, low whistle beside me. 'Well,' he said, not tearing his eyes from the sight before him. 'Certainly not a sports' field, then.'

Iggy let an ugly frown mar his features. 'They _have _been lying to us!' he muttered. 'I can't believe.'

'Remind me to never again trust the creepy strangers who tell me fantastical stories,' I mocked and he flipped me the bird.

'Should we go in?' said a timid voice behind me and I turned to see her standing a couple of feet back from the rest of us, a pallor settling on her face like an illness, a fever. 'That place is totally freaky. Like if I went in there, I'd lose my soul or something.'

Iggy regarded the sight before us for a moment with a contemplative look on his face, before finally he turned back, shrugging. 'I'm not sure what you mean, Nudge. It's not what I was expecting, sure – I was going more for a room full of torture devices and bloodstains – but it doesn't look _that _bad.'

'Well they're bound to be hiding the torture devices, right?' Fang whispered to me, an amused look on his face. 'They're not going to keep them in plain sight.'

I snorted, struggling to keep a straight face. I whacked Fang on the shoulder. 'Not funny,' I breathed, although I was smiling.

But Nudge's voice was starting to take a panicked tone and my good humour slipped away as I saw how frightened she truly was.

'Listen,' she snapped, 'guys, I know that you think this is all like – like a _joke _or something, but I don't. If we get caught then bad things will happen. I _know _they will. And that place, I don't know. It feels evil. And if you go in there then they'll probably do the same things to you guys as they've been doing to all the _other _kids who have gone missing from this place.' She took a deep breath, the air catching in her throat. 'And I don't know about you guys, but I don't want that to happen. To any of us.' Her voice had taken on an almost pleading tone now. 'Come on. We found what we've been looking for, we know that they've been lying to us. We could probably even sue them if we wanted to. So can we please _go now?_'

Silence settled on the room as Nudge stopped, breathing hard, and I exchanged a bemused glance with Fang and Iggy, wondering what had gotten into her. Ten minutes ago she'd been fine. Scared, sure, but we all were. Now she was plain refusing to investigate.

I bit my lip. It wasn't that I couldn't see her point, because I totally could. We hadn't really planned what we were going to do once we were past the metal door, but that was only because we didn't _know _what would happen once we were through. For all we had known, there could have been a whole squadron of armed guards waiting to ambush us right behind that door, ready to act as soon as it swung open. But, of course, that didn't end up happening, and anyway, I'd always planned to go ahead anyway as soon as we reached this stage. I thought that that was just the widely assumed course of action. Apparently not.

I sighed and reached a beseeching hand for Nudge, but she danced away angrily, a tiny scowl flitting across her lips. I dropped my hand.

'Nudge,' I said slowly, searching for the right words. 'You can go back if you want. I won't blame you. But...' I hesitated. 'I'm going in. I want to find out what's going on.'

Nudge looked down and swallowed. 'Does that mean that I'm going back on my own?' she asked in a small once. Valiantly, I attempted to shove down my guilt. I failed.

I desperately looked to Fang and Iggy for suggestions. Fang shrugged, unhelpful as always, but Iggy, who had been biting his lip, spoke now. 'I'll go back with you, Nudge,' he said.

Immediately, a smile lit her face. 'Really?'

'Yeah. You owe me though. This would have been heaps exciting.' He mock-frowned sternly at her.

'Oh, thank you, Iggy!' Nudge squealed, rushing forward and crushing Iggy in a hug. I smirked when I saw him gasp for air behind her back.

'Nudge,' I said, 'as much as I'm sure Iggy is _loving_ being so close to you, you should probably let go before you _totally _suffocate him.' This earned me glares from both of them.

'So, let me get this straight,' Fang said. 'Iggy and Nudge are going back to their cells? And me and you are continuing?'

'Mhhm,' I confirmed.

He shrugged. 'Well, okay. But,' he said, pointing at the two of them (who had thankfully disentangled by this point). 'If anything happens to us, you two are automatically to blame for ditching us.'

Iggy rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, Fang. Whatever.'

Nudge, on the other hand, seemed genuinely worried. 'Be careful!' she squeaked, eyes huge in the darkness.

'We'll be fine, Nudge,' I reassured her. 'I swear.'

I checked my watch, straining to see the digital numbers in the black, and saw with a jolt that it was already twelve thirty. I hadn't realised that so much time had passed since we had broken out of the cells. It seemed like ten minutes at the most.

'You guys should probably go,' I told them. 'If a guard passes and see that nobody's in our cells...'

They nodded, but still they stalled. 'You _will _be careful, right?' Iggy asked seriously, all amusement gone from his face.

'_Yes, _Iggy.'

Iggy turned unwillingly and started to walk away slowly, reluctantly, as though he would do anything to be in our places right now. He _was_ the daredevil of our little group, after all. The idea of doing anything dangerous was probably incredibly exciting to him.

Nudge, on the other hand, was treading like a content puppy who had been given what she wanted, happy now that she knew she would be safe. I almost wished I was in her place, but my curiosity over what the hallway continued burned brighter than that want, itching to be investigated.

Fang and I watched in silence as Nudge and Iggy turned a corner, and then we were alone, just the two of us.

I shifted awkwardly as we stood there, not speaking. The idea of being alone with Fang (like, _alone _alone) make me irritatingly nervous. He, on the other hand, looked entirely at ease. Of course he did. Fang was never unsure about anything, which was all too frustrating.

I took in a deep breath and raised my eyes once more to the hallway in front of us. 'So.' My voice split the air like a knife. I winced, hoping that nobody was around to hear. But, of course, nobody had been around to hear the entire night – there was no reason for me to be getting paranoid now.

Fang crossed his arms and took two firm, confident steps forward before looking back to see if I was following. 'Well?' he said and his voice sounded like a challenge. 'Are you coming or what?'

**xxx**

'Maybe we should go back.'

Fang just shook his head and bent back over the door, picking at the locking with a silent determination that I couldn't help but admire. He was completely focused, his hair brushing his dark eyes as he stared in concentration. If I can tell you the truth, it made him look... hot.

But still. 'Fang,' I said impatiently, fighting to keep a whine from appearing in my voice. 'There's nothing here. God knows I hate to admit defeat, but what if there's nothing to actually, you know... _find?'_

We had already been through three of the rooms along the perfectly sterile corridor and each one had been exactly the same as the one that preceded it: Empty. Just blank, clean rooms with smooth white paint on the walls and spotlessly tiled floors. The only we found that could spark our interest was a used needle that had been lying in the corner of one room, half hidden by the shadows that wreathed the place. Fang had pocketed it without a word and moved on.

Fang stepped back from the lock as it popped open without a sound. These locks were nowhere near as high tech as the others we had encountered on the way here. It was like whoever was in charge of the whole thing thought that the metal door was infallible and so didn't put much effort in the security that came after it. Obviously, he wasn't very smart. Or she.

'Max,' Fang said in quiet deliberation. 'Doesn't this whole thing strike you as a bit _weird?_ You don't just make a hallway full of empty rooms. The world doesn't work like that. They're here for a reason and I want to find out why.' He looked at me for a moment and I swear I could almost hear the disappointment in his always emotionless voice. 'Don't you?'

'Yes,' I said, frustrated. 'Of course I do. And I know that nobody just randomly goes around making hallways for no purpose. I mean, unless they're a billionaire, that is. I'm just... tired.' The lie sounded weak, even to my own ears.'

Fang looked at me steadily. 'You're scared.'

I dropped my gaze and didn't answer.

'It's alright to be scared, Max,' Fang's voice was soothing, like he was calming a wild animal. 'I'm scared too,' he admitted, and I looked at him incredulously. 'I know,' he said, grinning, some of his familiar confidence returning. 'It's impossible to imagine. But it's true.'

He put his hand on my shoulder and although in normal occasions I would have shrugged it off instantly in this case I let it stay. It was comforting. 'So where's the kick ass Maximum Ride I'm used to, huh?' he asked softly and I poked my tongue out at him, feeling my energy and curiosity starting to rise once more.

'Okay,' I said. 'Let's move on.'

The inside of this particular room was nothing more special than the others. It was decorated the exact same way, all white walls and tiled floors. The next one was the same. And the one after that.

In fact it was only once we got to the seventh door, one from the end of the line, when interesting things started to happen.

And by _interesting_, I mean _terrible._

Fang stepped back from the recently unpicked lock, waiting for me to go by. I twisted the knob and went to step inside, only to stop with my mouth open still the in the doorway. 'Holy...' I trailed off, worldless.

Fang stepped in beside me, and when he saw what I saw, for once the emotion was clear on his face. He was shocked. Angry. Horrified. 'Shit,' he said.

The room was clean enough. It was set exactly the same way as the other rooms had been; blank white walls, clean tiled floor. _White walls, tiled floor, white walls, tiled floor, white walls, tiled floor, they're all the same. _But this one was _not all the same._

Whereas the other rooms had been completely empty, totally devoid of any evidence that anyone had stepped in them, ever, this one was clearly being used.

In front of us was an operating room. To the side were two trays; one was full of bowls and small needles like the one I knew Fang had his fist around in his pocket right now. They were all full of substances that I had no hope of recognising and I didn't even start to try to identify them. The other had more sinister objects on them, scalpels, knives, tweezers, other objects that I couldn't name. One tiny surgical knife had a small brown-red smear on its razor sharp edge and – knowing perfectly well what the stain was – just looking at it made me feel sick.

But dominating the room, sitting right in the centre, drawing all eyes to it, was a table. It was nondescript, made of plain metal that had been scrubbed clean to the point that I knew if I bent over it I would see my reflection staring back up at me. It was large, wide and tall. In fact, there would have been nothing incriminating about it if not for the tiny unassuming person lying unconscious on its gleaming surface.

Cassandra.

The scene in the hall the previous day flashed before my eyes, like it had a million times already. I replayed the look on her face, the tears that splashed down her cheeks as she was towed away by Ari and the therapist to who know where. _This _is where they had taken her.

I felt the bile rise quickly in my throat and I had to turn quickly in order to stop myself from throwing up completely. She was so small there, her hair spilling around her hear shaped face like a curtain, her legs bent at an awkward angle underneath her. Her eyes were closed, totally still beneath her lids. Her face clearly expressed pain, and this was made me feel most unwell. They were _hurting _her.

She was strapped up to four or five different monitors, each measuring a separate function of her body and only the steady _thump _of the heart monitor assured me that she was still alive. I couldn't even detect the slightest rise or fall of her chest to show me that her heart was still working properly.

Fang let out a long pent up breath beside me and as I looked on I saw that his fists were clenching and unclenching at his sides, his jaw clenched tightly. He was angrier than I had seen him in a long time.

Briefly, I remembered him saying, barely an hour ago, "_Well, they're bound to be hiding the torture devices, right? They're not going to keep them in plain sight."_ The words had been meant as a joke, I knew, but now as I struggled to tear my eyes from the horrifying scene before me, I couldn't help but think that he had been right.

Suddenly, I got the prickling feeling that we were being watched. I felt like our every move was being recorded in some way and I felt panicked, as though we needed to get out of there _right now._

'Fang.' My voice exited my mouth as a strangled squeak. 'Fang, we need to go. I – I think someone's watching us.'

He didn't look away from Cassandra, didn't acknowledge that I had spoken at all.

'_Fang_,' I demanded, forcing myself to make my voice more forceful. 'Let's go. _Please.'_

'Sorry kids, but you're not going anywhere.'

We spun at the new voice, agitation rising quickly – we'd been _caught! –_ but disbelief quickly took over.

'_Brigid Dwyer?'_

**You guys better be happy with this. I swear. I expect some reviews, people!**

**Also, if you squint, I swear I put some Fax in. I don't know. I'm not good at the whole romance thing. But it really is happening, honest!**

**Anyway, REVIEW! Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top? Last chapter's response was lousy... so BUCK UP, PEOPLE.**


	24. Chapter 24 Brigid

**Oh, hai. Sorry to say, but I guess we're back to the erratic, jumpy updates. Well, damn. It was good while it lasted... **

**To all you Americans out there: feel lucky that it's summer and school's ending for you guys. For me, it's winter and I'm less than halfway through the year. Don't you guys get, like, a three month break or something? Wow... (Three. Months. You're kidding me, right? And here I was thinking six weeks was good! I officially want to move to America.)**

**Max PO V**

My eyes narrowed immediately as I took in the red hair, the slim figure, the familiar smug expression on that pretty face. I straightened out of my protective crouch and I felt Fang stiffen with shock beside me.

Brigid was alone, framed in the doorway, but somehow she managed to look extremely intimidating, even though she had to be even more petite than Nudge.

'Brigid Dwyer,' I said again in disbelief. 'You. What are _you _doing here?'

Her eyebrows rose in – no doubt, fake – confusion. 'What am _I _doing here? Why, I run the place of course.' She smiled a little bashfully, as though embarrassed by this, and then her expression hardened. 'I do believe the more appropriate question to ask would be what _you_ aredoing here. Don't you think?'

I cocked my head and completely ignored her question. 'You run this place? Isn't that supposed to be Alan Stevens? He's the Director, yeah?'

She let out a derisive scoff and flipped her hair over her shoulder with one hand; even now she had her clipboard and pen clutched tightly in one hand. It was like it was an extension of her arm, something she just simply couldn't part with.

'Alan Stevens!' she laughed. 'That fool. He's nothing but a peon. A show for the government. I am the true master of this place – Stevens knows very little about what goes on down here.'

'Master?' I asked sardonically. 'Shouldn't that be _'Mistress?'_ Unless you're hiding something from us, of course.' I watched in satisfaction as her face flushed pink.

'So what exactly _does _go on down here?' Fang butted in, using an equally sarcastic tone. He made a show of looking around at all the scientific equipment surrounding us. 'Plans to take over the world maybe?'

Brigid made a little '_hmph' _and took a step further into the room. Her heels clicked on the floor as she came. Even for this occasion she managed to be impeccably dressed in a dark grey business jacket and pencil skirt that was like a stark background for her bright hair. She had death traps for shoes that made me wince even to look at. She seemed for all the world like the perfect secretary, if I hadn't known better.

'I do not plan to take over the world,' she said slowly, her hazel eyes landing hungrily on Fang. A smirk graced her lips. 'Women tend not to be as macho as that – we leave the men to rot away with their plans of total domination in the sewers of the earth. We are more practical. We do not waste time panting after such ridiculous things.'

I spread my hands and her eyes snapped back to me. 'So?' I prompted. 'If that's not it, then what _is?'_

She cocked her head and moved so that she was in front of me. She leaned forward until I was close enough to see any blemishes on her skin – there were none – and the manic gleam of her eyes. 'Do you think that I am stupid, Maximum Ride?' she asked me softly, her eyes widening just the slightest bit. I drew back infinitesimally to get away from her stench of roses and peach. It was overpowering.

'Well, yeah, kind of,' I admitted and her eyes narrowed.

She backed a couple of steps away and I breathed a sigh of relief. 'I am not stupid,' she said, 'and this is not a spy boy book where the main villain idiotically reveals his plan to the hero moments before the hero's supposed demise.' She shook her head no. 'I am cautious. I will not make that mistake.'

My eyes narrowed. 'Fine,' I snapped. 'Then reveal _this.'_ And with that, I snapped my fist out and clocked her over the head with such force that I thought her skull might have cracked the bones in my hand.

Her head whipped around, hair flying everywhere, and she stumbled backwards a couple of steps before losing her balance on those deadly heels and sprawling across the floor.

She was face down with her hair spread like a fan of fire across the cold ground and her arms were at awkward angles like she was trying to stop her fall. But she wasn't moving – she was deadly still.

I drew in a breath as I took in what I had done. I glanced up, wild-eyed, at Fang, who was staring at me in shock. I looked back down at Brigid, then up at Fang again. '_Run,' _I hissed viciously and he needed no further persuasion.

We both wheeled around to make our way out the door, but before I had taken two steps there was an ear splitting whistle from behind me and suddenly there were people blocking our escape.

One was someone I recognised – Alicia. She was looking almost the same as ever, all blonde hair and dark eyeliner, but my heart fell to my stomach as I took in the empty look in her blue eyes. She was gazing right at me, but at the same time I knew she wasn't _seeing _me. Not really. She had to be brainwashed, or hypnotised, or _something. _As terrible a person as she was, I could hardly see her doing something like this; not something on such a grand scale.

The other one, I didn't know. He was tall and broad shouldered and he had turquoise eyes that reminded me of a beautiful, bright lake. They had the same dead look as Alicia's, and I shivered just looking at them. His hair flopped over his eyes in much the same fashion as Fang's, although the newcomer's hair was much neater and shorter, and it was a pure blonde colour, a lot like the sand of a sunny beach. He had smooth, tan skin and was wearing a suspiciously normal outfit of jeans and a green hoodie. There was no denying it – he was good looking. He was just as handsome as Fang – which is quite a feat, mind you – but I couldn't help but be struck by how different the two of them looked. It was as if they were totally opposites. Fang was night and this guy was day. For some reason, I found the idea totally hilarious and had to repress the urge to giggle hysterically.

There was a strange mixture a hissing and snarling behind me that reminded me of a cat that was spitting mad. I twisted to see that Brigid had pulled herself to her feet and was glaring at us like she wanted to attack us herself. She was a mess – her hair was in tangles and her clothes were crooked and falling off her shoulders. There was a look on her face that can only be described as 'incredibly pissed off'. One hand clutching at her head, obviously where I had hit her and the other was clenched at her side like a claw. She had abandoned all pretences of composure.

'Did you really think,' she spat, stalking towards us stiffly, 'that I would come to this place unprepared? Did you think that when I saw the two of you skulking around this place on my cameras, that I would actually arrive without precautions? I have already told you this before and I shall say it again, since you were apparently too stupid to listen last time. _I am a careful woman! _ I will not let you ruin my procedures!' _Whatever they actually are, _I thought ruefully.

She snapped her fingers and the next moment I feel two impossibly strong hands close on either one of my arms, squeezing it till I thought it might drop off altogether. I looked over at Fang and saw that he was in a similar predicament, and was struggling, his opposite having grabbed a hold of him from behind. He somehow managed to keep a totally impassive face too, the loser.

I kicked out behind me at Alicia and felt my foot connect with her shin, but she didn't budge. In fact, it was as if she hadn't felt the blow at all. She was impervious.

A cruel smile found its way onto Brigid's face and she slowly walked around me and Alicia, passing her fingers across Alicia's face as she did so. Alicia shuddered in pleasure as she did so. She made her way to Fang and the other guy and stopped. She was standing very close to them.

'My pets,' she practically purred, smiling sickly sweet. She pointed at Alicia. 'I expect you to already know this one, Alicia. She was a good find. When I discovered her in the logs of that other juvenile centre, I knew that she was perfect for my wants. I arranged for her to be sent here under the excuse that she was causing too much trouble at her former prison. And then she was mine. It was embarrassingly easy.'

Her eyes turned to the boy who had managed to capture Fang in a headlock. She reached out a hand to caress his cheek lovingly, like a mother, and I almost retched in horror when I saw him blindly turn his face into her hand as though he was an obedient puppy craving more petting. She smiled. 'And then there's Dylan,' she said. 'Dylan was a problem that we needed to correct, and so we took him away. We were going to use the standard procedure, but I decided that I could use a good bodyguard. And so here we are.' She shrugged her shoulders as if she were talking about nothing more than the weather.

Dylan. My eyes widened at the name. This was the guy that Aedon had talked about? The one that had been taken away and had never returned? This is what had become of him. I felt like throwing up.

Brigid's eyes wandered over to Cassandra, who was still lying comatose on the metal table, oblivious to what was going on in the room. 'Cassandra here was supposed to be an addition to Dylan this afternoon, along with Alicia. We took Alicia after dinner and she only came around twenty minutes ago. Unfortunately, Alicia's was the only successful operation.' Brigid shrugged regretfully. 'Poor Cassie may be unconscious for quite a while to come.'

Procedure. Operation. Brigid was using all these words and I had no idea what they meant. All I knew was that she was utterly and completely mad.

'You're insane,' I said in a voice that shook with anger. 'A total lunatic.'

Brigid adopted a sad look. 'That is often how it goes with visionaries,' she agreed. 'You're either a genius or you are mad. I intend to be the former.'

Her eyes snapped to Dylan and Alicia. 'Take them away.'

**Well, well, well? How'd I go? I liked it. The start was a bit rough, but man. I gotta say, I do like this chapter.**

**Show your appreciation and REVIEW! Pleasies.**


	25. Chapter 25 Escape

**I'm totally not doing this while I should be writing my English speech. Which is due tomorrow. And has to be ten minutes long. And I haven't started yet. **

**Totally not.**

**And hey! I wrote this yesterday, and I updated last on Sunday (Saturday for you). So what's that? Like, two updates in three days? I AM BLOODY AMAZING. (Hah, not really. I'm just very sporadic about my updates. Like, **_**very **_**sporadic.)**

**Anyways! You've been yelling for romance for a while now, and, well... TA DA! Here ya go. By far the fluffiest chapter I have written in my entire life. I hope you're happy. I have a toothache from all the sweetness. Ow. (I also have a hand that is bruised all over and has swollen to twice its normal size. It hurts to move... pity me.)**

The footsteps that echoed off the cold stone floor seemed excruciatingly loud to Nudge. She flinched every time her foot hit the ground, convinced that the clicking of their shoes was going to wake the entire building. Couldn't someone _hear_ them walking? Surely _someone_ would be alert to their footfalls. Nudge knew that she shouldn't worry about something so seemingly trivial, especially after ditching Max and Fang like that, but she couldn't help herself.  
Of course, Nudge was consumed with worry about that, too. She felt so guilty about leaving them on their own like that, but she had been so scared, so certain that something had gone wrong, or was going to. She had panicked, she had demanded to turn around. She had persuaded Iggy to come with her so that she wouldn't have to walk through the black on her own. The dark terrified Nudge, just like so many other things, and Iggy's presence soothed her, calmed her. It reassured her that nothing was going to go wrong.

And yet no sooner had she reached her cell then she was having second thoughts about turning back. The door was still wide open and inviting, the electric lock giving off a soft light, just the way they had left it, but she hesitated to enter.  
'Iggy,' she said after a moment, turning to the boy beside her. She knew that he wasn't very happy with her for making him turn back with her. But still he looked at her with a slight smile on his face. He always smiled when he looked at her.  
'Yeah?'  
'Do you think –' Nudge bit her lip and then continued. 'D'you think we should have gone with Max and Fang?'  
Iggy sighed and leaned back against the bars of the cell with his arms folded. She could hardly see him in the blackness, but he had bright eyes that were iridescent and they had a sort of glow in the dark, like a cat's. They were mesmerizing.  
'I think we should have gone with them,' Iggy said finally, his tone harsh. 'But we're back here now. Because of you, I may add. There's nothing we can do about that.'  
Nudge winced. He _was_ angry at her. 'I'm sorry,' she said in a small voice, wringing her hands together nervously. 'I'm just... I'm not used to doing this sort of stuff, alright? I mean, it's alright for you and Max and Fang. You guys broke the law all the time. But I'm not brave like you. I don't really know how to break the rules.' She gave a shaky laugh. 'Every time I tried I would chicken out. Like now.'  
She looked at her feet.  
When Iggy spoke again, his tone had softened and he sounded like he was smiling, although Nudge couldn't tell for sure because of the dark. 'Being criminal does not equal to being brave, Nudge,' he said gently. 'It's kinda cowardly, if I'm being truthful.'  
'Well then, why do _you_ do it?'  
He chuckled quietly. 'It's addictive,' he grinned. 'Once you've got the bug...'  
Nudge smiled as well and then looked at her empty cell. She hated that Max wouldn't be with her, she felt honestly awful. But that bed... she was so tired. She didn't even care that it was hard and thin and full of holes. She just wanted to go to sleep.  
She sighed. 'We better get back to our cells,' she said. 'We've already wasted enough time dallying around here. Someone will come along soon.'  
'Yeah,' he agreed. 'Maybe Max and Fang will turn up soon.'  
'Night,' Nudge said. Silently, she cursed herself. She would have loved to talk to Iggy more; he was the most interesting person she had ever met. And yet, somehow she found herself tongue tied – where on earth did her motor mouth disappear to? She felt like banging her head in the metal bar beside her.  
Iggy turned away to go to his own cell and Nudge went into hers. She was stopped by the sound of his voice behind her.  
'Nudge, wait.'  
She looked at him once more and was startled into taking a step back by his close proximity. From this distance, she could distinguish between every freckle on his pale skin, every separate strand of reddish blonde hair. He was breathing fast, his thin chest rising and falling rapidly. Instinctively, Nudge felt her own breath quicken until it was leaving her in little pants.  
'I-' Iggy cut himself off and looked away as though frustrated. He met Nudge's eyes again. 'They will be okay, Nudge.' He said. 'They're Max and Fang, after all.'  
'You talk of them as though they're invincible,' I muttered. 'They're only human, Ig. Just like you and me.' He didn't seem very human right now though, Nudge couldn't help but reflect. He was standing in what little moonlight came through the barred window and strips of silver light played across his face. He looked like an angel. His face was vulnerable, totally open to be read.  
She cocked her head suddenly. Looking at him like that, so different from his normal snarky self, Nudge had had a ridiculous urge. Not a good idea, she told herself firmly. Bad idea. Awful idea.  
She would do it.  
Slowly, she stepped forward so that was as close as she possibly could be to him without touching. He gazed at her with wide blue eyes.  
'They have to be okay, Iggy,' she said softly, her voice cracking as she said his name. 'They have to be.'  
And then she stood as tall as possible on her tip-toes, placed her hands on his shoulders, and she kissed him.  
It only lasted a few seconds, she knew, but it felt like hours to Nudge. In the few moments that her mouth was pressed against his, she felt so _alive_, so much more so than she had ever done in her entire life. She had kissed other boys before, of course. She had had several boyfriends in her sixteen years of life. But Iggy was different. His lips were warm beneath her own; they were soft and firm at all at once. He was startled in the beginning, she could tell, but after a moment his hands moved to her waist and he pulled her closer to him. And then she was lost to the sensation. She just let herself go.  
When she stepped away again, his face was flushed and his eyes were shining. There was a wondering expression on his face. Nudge knew that she must look much the same way, bright eyed and red faced and like her dreams had just come true. It was, after all, exactly how she felt.  
She smiled. 'Good night, Iggy.'

Nudge wasn't very tired anymore.

**xxx**

**Max POV**

They took us to what I could only assume was a holding cell. It was a big white room with a metal door that locked from the outside and had no windows. In fact, it had nothing in it at all; it was totally blank, with nothing at all to decorate. The walls were so perfectly white, I could barely tell where one ended and another began – the corners were practically invisible. On the ceiling, there was a large light that spread harsh white light throughout the room. It gave my arms a sickly pallor.

When Alicia and Dylan had left, I slumped heavily to the ground in one of the corners with my arms wrapped tightly around me. It was cold in here, much colder than it had been in the operating room or the main facility.

Fang slumped down beside me and sat perfectly still with his legs drawn up to his chest and his cheek resting on his knee. His eyes were closed and his long lashes cast spindly thin shadows over his sharp cheekbones. He was breathing smoothly and quietly; I thought that he might have fallen asleep, somehow. He just looked that calm. Even in the situation we were in he refused to let his emotions take a hold of him. With my twisted mind, I managed to find that both tragic and endearing in the same way: tragic that he was so closed off and reserved, endearing that he was so controlled. It was a very strange feeling.

I gazed at him, watching the way his eyes twitched under their lids, how his chest rose and fell in a slow pattern of breaths, the shadows that his hair cast as it covered his face. A slight smirk appeared on his lips. 'Had enough sightseeing?' he asked. His dark eyes opened and met my own. I started in surprise.

'How did you know I was looking at you?' I asked, quickly looking away from him and picking at a loose thread on my clothing. I refused to meet his gaze.

'You were quiet,' Fang shrugged. 'You're only quiet when you're thinking about something. That something being me, obviously.'

I scowled and smacked his leg. 'You couldn't have known I was thinking you. Maybe I was thinking about Dylan and Alicia, or that bitch, Brigid.'

'Yeah, but why ponder them when there's the likes of me to obsess over?'

'You know, it would have been nice to find out that you were this conceited before now,' I said sourly, regarding him and wrinkling my nose.

He sighed and the playful look deserted his eyes. 'Just trying to lighten the mood, Max.'

I looked down. 'Do you think we can get out of here?' I asked him quietly. 'Honestly.'

There was silence. I looked up to see him biting his lip in an unusual display of uncertainty. Finally, he said, 'I don't know, Max. We don't know if we don't try, do we?'

I nodded. 'You're right.' Getting up, I quickly skirted the perimeters of the room, looking for cracks, weaknesses, anything that could let us out of the place. But nothing presented itself to me. The walls were smooth and high. The door was edgeless. As far as I could see, we were trapped.

I huffed and sat back down in another corner, now opposite Fang. He had sat quietly the entire time I had been prowling the room, watching me search it with those alert eyes of his.

'I don't see how we're getting out of this, Fang,' I said hopelessly. 'Let's face it: they're going to leave us down here to rot, and then when they find a use for us, they're going to turn us into more mindless zombies, just like Alicia and Dylan. We're not getting out of it.'

He said nothing.

'I'm going to sleep,' I snapped, throwing myself onto the ground. I was cold, I was hungry, I was pissed. I just wanted this to be over already.

A few minuted later and I was shivering violently. My teeth were chattering loudly and my hands felt like ice. I suppose moving around had kept me cold. But now...

There was movement behind me and a moment later, a soft, _warm _heaviness settled over me. I sat up quickly and Fang's thick black jacket fell off me. I raised an eyebrow and picked it up, examining it. 'A jacket?' I asked snidely, looking up a Fang who was standing a few feet away, now only wearing his grey prisoner-issue t-shirt. 'Isn't that, like, the most cliché move in the book? Come on.'

Fang rolled his eyes. 'I'm not cold, you are,' he said slowly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. 'Just take the damn jacket and don't argue for once.'

I narrowed my eyes, but didn't release the jacket from my grasp. 'Chauvinistic asshole,' I muttered.

However, the jacket was warm – well, not warm, but warm_er _– and it did indeed help me sleep. I drifted off into uneasy dreams of needles and operating tables and I was only woken when I felt the hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake.

I jerked upright and snapped out a fist – it connected with flesh and my shoulder was released.

'Ow!' snapped a familiar voice. 'God dammit, Max! It's only me.'

My eyes flicked open and I saw Fang in front of me, rubbing his jaw and glaring at me through slitted eyes.

'Oh.' I sat up and smiled apologetically. 'Sorry. Reflex.'

'Sure it was.' Fang shook his head. 'Anyway, I want you to come see something. And give me back the jacket – I'm freezing.'

I handed over the jacket and followed him over to the door where he was pointing at the hinges in a way that clearly said, 'Look! Look at what I found!'

I blinked. 'Um... yes?'

Fang rolled his eyes in exasperation. If he was prone to emotions, he would have smacked his forehead at my obvious idiocy. 'The hinges.'

I studied the hinges closely. They looked totally ordinary to me. I shrugged. 'What about them?' I asked him.

'They're loose,' he explained. 'Like, really loose. I was pulling on one before and it came right off.' He showed me a rusty nail in his hand.

I was slowly getting it. 'You think we should take the door off?'

'Well, what other choice do we have?' Fang said. 'If they're stupid enough to let the hinges rust away...' he gave a sudden and surprising grin. I was struck by how bright his teeth were, and how his smile tended to light up his entire face. It was like there was a whole other side to him that was only let loose when he smiled. I loved getting to be the one to see it most often. It made me feel like I somehow was special to him. _Jeez, _I thought to myself, _you sound like a lovesick loon. What is wrong with you?_

Shaking my head, I joined him at the door and ran my hands over the metal. My fingers came off with a slight orange coating of rust. 'How long do you think it's been since these were replaced?' I asked him.

'Must be years,' Fang frowned. 'It's a lot of degradation. I wonder how the water got in.'

'To think that Brigid's been doing this stuff for years, though,' I said, shuddering as I considered the horrible possibility. 'She totally insane, y'know.'

He nodded in fervent agreement.

I moved forward and tugged at a bolt in the door. It gave way very slightly. Another couple of pulls and some more twists and I was holding the nail in my palm.

'You know,' I said thoughtfully, staring at the nail, 'I think we could actually do this.' I dropped it to the floor with a clink. A satisfied smile was spreading over my face.

We spent the next half an hour pulling with all our might at the nails, twisting and tugging feverishly, and eventually we had a collection of rusty old nails rolling over the floors as we dropped them. There was only once left, which Fang bent to undo.

I glanced at my watch – 7:30. The others would be heading to breakfast by now. I felt a pang as I thought of Iggy and Nudge. Had they gotten back alright?

'Max!' Fang stood up, clutching the last nail. I'd never seen him so excited. His face was slightly flushed and his dark eyes were bright with anticipation. Behind him, the door had been placed carefully and silently on the wall beside it. The doorway was clear and empty.

I grinned. We were out.

**Soo, I was gonna continue, but I figured this was long enough. Didn't you love the Nudge/Iggy bit at the beginning? Please say yes.**

**Also, you know what? I swore that I was gonna put some Fax in this chapter, but (god dammit) I just can't seem to do it. HELP ME.**

**Review! Give me suggestions on how to manage the Max/Fang relationship! I'm STUCK!**

**P.S – All the writing has made my hand **_**really **_**fucking hurt, so you better shower me with sympathy...**


	26. Chapter 26 Files

**Two things:**

**One – thank you so much for all your suggestions on how to handle the Max/Fang relationship, they were really helpful!**

**Two – Past 300 reviews? Seriously? Guys, you are bloody amazing, thank you so much. I feel like this story is actually a success! :P**

**And… onwards!**

**(P.S – My brother forgot to close COD before he got off the computer, so I'm just listening to all this taut, tense music in the background. Definitely sets this mood for this chapter…)**

**Max POV**

'Where do you think we are?' I breathed quietly to Fang, gazing at my surroundings.

'Dunno. We could be anywhere, couldn't we?'

Unfortunately, he was absolutely right. Once we had managed to get out of our prison cell, we found ourselves in a maze of corridors, all identical to one another: white, neutral, devoid of anything that set them apart from the others. Consequentially, our attempts to wind our way through the narrow halls had ended up in us becoming utterly and completely lost. Typically. We'd started off striding confidently along, absolutely sure in our path (okay, so were we sneaking, really – who knows, maybe they have some sort of fish-eye lens somewhere, tracking our every move) but within ten minutes, our treads had slowed to an uncertain walk, every step laden with doubt. We were going on half an hour by now, and were still nowhere closer to getting out of this confusing section of the building.

I had no idea where all these hallways and extra rooms (doors lined every corridor we turned into) managed to fit into the building. I remembered my first sighting of the place, when I had arrived on a sweltering hot day besides Iggy; I had thought that the building wouldn't be able to fit more than two hundred people, but these corridors would be able to house at least that much, if not more. And it was only one part of the detention centre. I had severely underestimated the size of this building.

'Honestly, they didn't even need to lock us in the room,' I muttered, running my hand through my messy hair as I continued to stare around me. I was feeling dangerously defeated. I knew that letting emotions like that overcome me was a bad idea, but the hopelessness that was creeping up on me was too much to ignore. 'We're never going to find our way out of this hell hole anyway. We'll probably rot down here. We'll be skeletons before they discover our bodies.'

I just wanted to lie down and sleep. It didn't matter that I had been asleep not two hours before, I just felt so unbelievably tired. Maybe if I went to sleep, when I woke up this entire thing would be a dream. I would be home, in my run down shack that I shared with my parents, just having a nightmare in my normal, holey bed. Maybe the whole warehouse fiasco never happened and I'd never been sent to Gold Creek Correctional Facility and I'd never dug myself into this disaster that I'd managed to land myself in, and if I pinched myself then I'd wake up and life would go on as normal, unchanging. Just like it always had.

_But no, _another voice within me argued, springing up unbidden from the back of my mind. As awful and twisted this place was, if I had never been sent here then I wouldn't have met Fang. And I would never have been introduced to Iggy or Nudge. I had noticed a change in myself over the past month – getting to know them, becoming such close friends with the three of them… it had made me _happy. _It wasn't like I'd never been happy before; I'd had those occasional little sparks of joy flare up when something good happened – my first A on my report card, my first interaction with Alicia, the small smiles I rarely received from Mum and Dad, when they were sober – but this was a different sort of happiness. Instead of a flare of content that quickly disappeared, this was more like a simmer, boiling away almost completely unnoticed, but never truly fading. Even now, in the situation I was in, I knew that I felt far more comfortable being around Fang than I would have if I was alone. I was almost _glad _that I had been sent to Gold Creek Correctional Facility, which was totally insane, but also absolutely true.

'Don't talk like that.' Fang's voice snapped me out of my reverie and I was startled to hear that he sounded tense and angry. Far more emotion than he usually ever let anyone see or hear. I looked up and took in the clenched jaw, the fisted hands. 'Don't…' He took in a breath. 'Don't talk like that, okay? I just – ' He stopped again and glared at the sparklingly clean floors. He scuffed his battered black Converse on the floor, as if annoyed by its spotless state.** '**We have to get out, alright? We have to.'

I cocked my head and took him in. Fang kept his emotions guarded well, he locked them away jealously in a box at the back of his mind for only him to see, but now it seemed like some of those feelings had broken the lock on that box and were escaping him. And if I was right, then he seemed almost… could he possibly be scared? It was such an un-Fang-like emotion that I surprised myself with my own conclusion. Fang didn't get scared. It just didn't happen. It would be the equivalent to Nudge and Alicia swapping places, Alicia turning into this incredibly sweet girl and Nudge a cold hearted, backstabbing bitch. An impossibility. And yet, here was the evidence right in front of me. Fang was pale and he had started to breathe a little faster. His hands were beginning to shake ever so slightly and even as I watched, his eyes shut tight like he was trying to hide himself from the world.

I didn't know what to do. I'd never been good at comforting people and this was no exception. For a moment I floundered in my own inexperience, before I gingerly laid a timid hand on his arm, praying that he wouldn't throw it off. He didn't, which was encouraging, but he didn't react in any other way either, which sapped at my confidence a little.

'Fang?' I tried, hating how unsure my voice sounded. How is it that I can yell at people twice my size without a second thought, and yet when it came to basic human interaction, I totally fall on my face? It was ridiculous.

His eyes slowly opened. He let out a slow breath, which I mimicked when I saw how calm he seemed. Nervous breakdown avoided? Thankfully.

'Sorry, Max,' he muttered. His hand fiddled anxiously with the hem of his jacket. He was avoiding my eyes. 'I guess I just let my feeling get a hold of me there for a moment. You know it doesn't usually happen.' I gave him a tiny smile. 'It's just this place and what you said about dying down here,' he continued. He appeared to be determined to explain his actions, like I would be ashamed of him if he didn't. 'It got to me,' he admitted. 'I just feel so claustrophobic and helpless here. I hate it.'

I met his eyes. 'It's all right to be scared, Fang,' I told him softly. 'This place freaks the hell out of me. All I want to do is get out. And your act just then didn't help either,' I scolded him in a teasing voice, hoping to make me feel better. 'It's scary to know that you actually feel emotions. I thought you were a robot!'

I was rewarded with an almost imperceptible twitch of the lips that let me know that my efforts, while not particularly effective, were appreciated all the same.

He sank down with his back to one of the walls, motioning me to join him. I sat down next to him with a tiny frown. What if a worker found us sitting here casually?

'They won't find us,' Fang said, as though answering my thoughts. 'Brigid is probably the only one who truly knows her way through this place. I bet all the other workers are just as lost as us.'

'They'd be late every day to work,' I said, smiling. 'And that can't be good, especially with Brigid as your boss.'

Fang shook his head. 'I still can't believe it's her,' he said, a tiny crease above his eyebrows. I found myself staring at it, absentmindedly thinking about how cute it looked. Then I shook myself. What was wrong with me?

'She only ever seemed like a secretary to me,' I agreed. 'A bitchy one, sure, but a secretary nonetheless.'

Then I hauled myself to my feet. 'Come on, Fang,' I ordered. 'We need to find our way out of here. I'm hungry and tired and this place is _really _starting to piss me off.'

He stood up next to me and followed me to one of the doors nearby, which, annoyingly, was refusing to open. 'Why do they lock it?' I exclaimed in exasperation, tugging fruitlessly at the cold steel handle. 'It's not like anyone's knows this place is here anyway!'

'Except us.'

'We don't count.'

I tried another door, and then another. In fact, I tried a whole corridor and a half worth of door before I finally discovered a door that pushed in obediently when I tried it.

'Finally,' I muttered, too pissed off to even be happy that one had eventually worked. The door swung open to reveal a dark square room lined completely with grey metal filing cabinets and a single, small desk made of a red wood pushed into one dark corner. The desk had a dead computer on it, along with a lone blunt pencil that lay forlornly on the surface, but was otherwise empty. There was a single door opposite us that presumably led to another corridor.

I stepped inside cautiously, expecting someone to leap out of the shadows and attack me at any moment. Knowing my luck, that wasn't as farfetched as it seemed. Fang followed right behind me, silent as always. He was like my own personal shadow.

'What do you make of it?' I asked quietly. Personally, the place was setting me on edge. All those filing cabinets, leaving not an inch of free space on the walls… I could guess what they contained. Almost unconsciously, my hand reached and took a hold of Fang's. I could feel the blood creeping uncomfortably along my neck and I was grateful for the gloom, hiding my redness from him.

You can imagine my relief when I felt him squeeze my hand reassuringly instead of pulling it away in disgust.

He walked silently over to the nearest filing cabinet, which was right up by the door, with me in tow and tugged it open. It moved stiffly as though it hadn't been opened in years, like it hadn't been deserted, forgotten. But it was packed full with manila folders, some thick, some thin, each one shoved in tighter than the last.

Fang extracted one with difficultly and flipped it open. The words were shadowed in the light, but evidently Fang could read them because he said, '"Eugenie Fitzimmons. 1978. Kleptomaniac."'

My eyes widened dramatically. '_1978? _This place has been open since the _seventies?'_

'I guess so.' Fang shoved the file unceremoniously back into the cabinet, bending the folder severely and pulled out another. '"Patrick Wallers, 1981, Extreme Violence."' Back into the cabinet. Another one came out. '"Marcy Hallow, 1982, Burglar."' Fang looked up at me and said, 'I think they're in chronological order. These are the oldest ones, closest to the door.'

'Do you think ours are in here?' I looked around at all files. If the ones closest to the door were the oldest then presumably they became more recent as you travelled along the walls in a sort of circle, until you came to the modern day criminals. Which would mean that the cabinets on the other side of the door would be ours.

Obviously Fang had come to the same conclusion as me because he dropped the file in his hand on top of the rest of the files, not even bothering to put it back in its place, before slamming the cabinet shut.

I was already at the other cabinet, pulling it open – it slid much easier than the first cabinet – and pulling out the first file. 'It's Alicia's!' I called to him as he joined me. 'Because she's the most recent person to come here. Look: "Alicia McMahon, Assorted Crimes."' The files told you all of the person's details, plus their crime, sentence and any additional notes. In the additional notes section was simply written '_See page 38B for information.' _There was a separate page stapled to the back of the folder. I was guessing that the information there would tell you all about whatever procedure she had gone through to make her… what she had become. Also, she's allergic to bees.

Fang pulled out another. 'This is yours,' he commentated. "'Maximum Ride, Burglar."' He stopped and a smirk appeared on his face. 'You're allergic to rabbits?'

'Shut up,' I snapped, snatching the file out of his hand and replacing it. 'It's something in the fur. Makes hives swell up and everything.'

I reached further back and pulled one at random. My jaw dropped open.

'No way!' I said.

'What?' Fang demanded, immediately abandoning his own search to see what I had found.

"'_Ari Batchelder.2004. Repeated aggression."'_

'Ari was a prisoner here?' Fang said, astonished. (Of course, his version of astonished was raising an eyebrow. But you get my point.)

'Proof's right here,' I answered. 'He came in 2004 for a five month period, but he never left…' My voice trailed away.

**Additional Notes: **_See page 35A_

I flipped the page over to see the additional notes. They were typed in an formal format.

**ARI BATCHELDER**

_25__th__ July 2004_

**Procedure: **_Standard_

**Head Surgeon: **_Brigid Dwyer_

**Cause: **_Continued disobedience. He has become a liability._

**Operation Status: **_Failed_

**Optional Notes: **_Although Batchelder retains more intelligence than desired, classifying the procedure as a failure, it is believed that his brain has been altered during the surgery and he has become exceedingly loyal and obedient to his father and to myself (Dr. Brigid Dwyer). This may prove useful in the future. It is expected, however, that this change may have made his brain more delicate and less stable. It is expected that his life span has been shortened circa twenty years._

It ended with Brigid's tight scribble of a signature at the bottom of the page. I put the file back in it's place, feeling vaguely sick. So Ari had been operated on too, had he? And he was probably on of the first tests, too. Brigid would have been only twenty, twenty one back in 2004. Jeb would have offered him right up to be used to help her cause. And I don't even know what her cause _is, _yet. She refused to tell me.

'Is it bad that I feel sorry for Ari?' I whispered. My stomach was still roiling madly.

'No.' Fang's voice was low and husky. His lips were pressed tightly together and his eyes were fixed on Ari's file, where it stood in the filing cabinet. 'It's sad.'

I nodded and drew in a shaky breath. I tried to put Ari's fate from my mind and reached into the cabinet to pull out the next file.

It was Iggy's. I was expecting the usual, but what I received was the equivalent to a punch in the gut. I drew in a sharp breath and instantly Fang's dark eyes were on mine again, wanting to know what was going on.

The folder slipped from my hands and I closed my eyes, but the image of what I had seen was printed onto my mind's eye. The words TO BE TERMINATED stamped across the rest of the page in angry red letters would not leave me.

I heard Fang pick up the folder from the floor, but I did not care.

To be terminated.

It was obvious what the words meant. It was like a confirmation of what I already suspected in the back of my mind. I remembered the phone call Iggy had received from his two siblings, Angel and Gazzy, telling him that they thought someone was after him. They were right after all, were they? Somehow, I didn't feel any better knowing. I felt like I was I was truly going to throw up now and it was all that I could do to hold it in.

'They can't do this,' Fang's tight voice said.

I opened my eyes and started pacing the room, running my hands through my hair. I didn't care about any procedures now, or the hundreds of reports filed away in these drawers, or even Ari and his predicament. All I knew was they were going after Iggy, they were going to kill him, and I would refuse to let that happen.

'They can't,' I said, as though saying it would make a difference. 'I won't _let _them.' Turn. 'They'll have to go through me first. And I'll be a big obstacle. And we'll get him out of here, we'll let him escape, and he can go get Angel and the Gasman and they can live together in some big house out in the wilds where they won't find him and he'll be safe and he won't die.' Turn. 'They _can't. _They can't, they can't, they _can't.'_ Turn.

I looked up to see Fang watching me with a very strange expression on his face. I didn't recognise it, at least not in relations to myself. It was the kind of look a boyfriend gave his girlfriend. It was the look old people gave each other when they had been sixty years in love. It was the look a wife gives her husband on their wedding day.

That wasn't the sort of look anyone ever gave me. Generally, I was that annoying pebble in a person's shoe that they will do anything to get rid of. I was a mosquito. I was a smear of mud on a sparkling clean floor. Nobody ever gave me the look Fang was giving me now. Ever.

'What?' I asked, feeling incredibly self-conscious.

He shook his head. His fingers were playing with the hem of his shirt again. 'It's… watching you worry about Iggy like that…it's nothing.'

A faint pink tinge had appeared on his cheeks and my eyes widened. Was he _blushing? _No way.

I was about to go back to my pacing, disappointment flooding through me (but _why?_) when he spoke again.

'You're an amazing person, Max. You are the most incredible person I've ever met.'

If Fang was blushing before, then I was officially on fire. I could feel the heat flaming in my cheeks and at the same time there was this unfamiliar swooping feeling in my chest that I was certain I had never felt before.

Fang took a step towards me. All his previous nervousness had vanished and now his eyes locked onto my own, capturing my gaze. I stood frozen.

He was right in front of me now, closer than he had ever been before. I could see tiny little gold glints in his mesmerizing eyes.

My breathing was quickening and it just about stuttered to a halt completely when he reached a gentle hand towards my face and used a cool finger to tilt my chin up. 'Max,' he whispered.

And then we were kissing and it was like an explosion detonated in my chest. I felt like I may have truly caught fire in that moment, or maybe I had been electrified, because there couldn't be any kiss in the world that could give me a feeling like this. I could feel every nerve in my body, every nerve in _his _body and I couldn't imagine every wanting anything in the world except for _Fang. _Every other though fled my mind – Iggy, Ari, our predicament, the fact that we were kissing in a _filing room, _out of anything or the procedures. All I could think about was Fang, Fang, _Fang. _He was everywhere. His hands were wrapped tightly around my waist and my arms had twined around his neck. I was pressed against him like we were one entity, and in that moment at least, that's exactly what we were. His kiss was rough, passionate, desperate, gentle, sweet, all at once. His lips were soft and warm and smooth against mine, and they were making me feel like I had never even dreamed of feeling before. And I was kissing him back with just as much force and he was pushing me back against one of the cabinets and my hands were knotted in his hair and one of my legs was around his waist –

'_What the hell are you doing?'_

The voice cut through the air like a whip crack and broke through the moment immediately. Fang pulled away from me in an instant, his breathing harsh and jagged, much like my own. His chest was rising and falling quickly as his wide eyes met my own and simultaneously, we turned our heads to stare at the door.

Brigid Dwyer was standing in the doorway with Alicia, Dylan and Ari. Her hair was mussed and disarrayed and her eyes were wild, bugging out of her head as she stared at the two of us. She was visibly shaking and she looked completely insane.

'How did you get in here?' she shrieked.

I didn't answer; instead I sprinted for the door on the other side of the room. It slammed open with a loud bang and then Fang and I were running down the corridor like our lives depended on it, which they probably did.

'_Get them!' _I heard Brigid howl from behind me.

Then there were three sets of heavy footsteps and I quickened my pace desperately, grabbing at Fang's arm to keep him with me.

The footsteps were getting closer. I didn't dare look behind me to see where the three of them were. But I didn't even need to, because seconds later, something hit Fang in the back of the head, hard. He stumbled, then tripped completely and went sprawling. And they were on him like wolves.

Ari backhanded Fang harshly across the head and he fell into the wall. I heard the crack as the skull and concrete collided and then Fang collapsed without so much as a whimper.

I think I screamed. I knew that I was close to hysteria, because I could feel the tears pricking at my eyes and yet I had the awful desire to laugh.

I could see Ari bearing down on me, but it was like watching a film. It wasn't me, it was my body. He was grinning, his expression more alive than I had ever seen it, and then his fist connected with my skull and I fell fast into the blackness waiting to meet me.

**Yeah, like **_**hell **_**I was going to just let them escape… pshh.**

**Anyway! What did you think? The kissing scene in particular.**

**You know the drill… REVIEW!**


	27. Chapter 27 The Change

**Hello!**

**Y'all are going to **_**hate **_**me when you read this. Oh, I **_**love **_**being evil. It's the funnest thing I can think of. (And yes, I know funnest isn't a word. Whatever.)**

**(Also, since when do I saw y'all?)**

**Max POV**

The first thing that I became aware of was a slow, throbbing ache in my head that sent waves of pain through my body and made bile rise to the back of my throat with astonishing speed. A headache pounded fiercely at the insides of my skull and I felt like my head my burst from the pressure. I opened my eyes slowly, to see where I was, then immediately closed them again when a wave of nausea threatened to have me throwing up all over myself.

I was lying on a cool concrete surface and my body felt so sore and stiff that I absent-mindedly wondered if I would ever be able to move again. My entire body felt like it had been passes through a meat grinder and back, which I knew was the result of all the stress and the running that I had gone through last night. I knew that in reality I hadn't done as much exercise as it seemed, but my body had yet t catch the memo.

I tried opening my eyes again, and this time I was able to keep them open successfully, although little starbursts of light and splotches of black marred my vision. Gingerly, I pushed myself up against a hard wall at my back, gritting my teeth against the ill feeling and telling myself to man up and get the hell over it. Tough love, that's me. I blinked rapidly and reached up a hand to the front of my skull, where all the waves of pain appeared to be emanating from. Tentatively, I prodded the area with a timid finger and then closed my eyes with a groan when the intensity of the pain instantly doubled.

I leaned my poor head back against the wall until it subsided once more, then I opened my eyes once again and took a proper look around at my location.

The room I was in was incredibly similar to the one Fang and I had escaped from who knows how many hours before. It seems I was right in thinking that the designers of the place had never heard the term 'artistic license'. The walls were hard and white and the floor was completely bare and clean. On the roof there was a single, stark white bulb that flooded the place with light.

In fact, the only difference between this room and the other one was that this one was _small. _I didn't think that I would be able to lie straight out without my limbs touching the adjacent walls. I knew that I would barely be able to stand up without my head scraping the ceiling. It was tiny enough to pass as a closet, rather than a room.

And there, barely an inch from my outstretched foot, was Fang.

He looked terrible. He was curled around himself and his jacket had been taken from him, leaving goose bumps to rise on his exposed arms. His eyelids were shut tight and his face was pale, like all the blood had been sucked out of it. Near his hairline was a blue-black bruise that ran the length of his face, which was in sharp contrast against the ghostly white of his thin cheeks. His black hair was lank and matted together by a dark substance that was, I recognised with a queasy feeling in my gut, blood. A heavy chain ran from his arm, where a manacle was digging into his skin harshly, to the wall, where it coiled tightly against a spike that had been shoved deep into the wall.

I took in a deep breath when I saw Fang and tried to control my own emotions. Seeing him like that, still out cold and in pain, had releases a whole army of feelings to my heart, and now they were rampaging throughout my entire body.

I was angry; I couldn't believe that they would tie him up like that. I knew why, of course – they didn't want us planning another escape. But I was still furious that they would do something so plainly barbaric. I was sad – this situation we were in was just so hopeless. I didn't see how we were going to get out this. Brigid was going to be off her head with rage about us escaping. She wouldn't risk it happening again. I was confused; what exactly had happened between Fang and I back in the filing room? It had happened so fast, it was over so soon... it was so unexpected. I was scared; There was no knowing what Brigid was going to do to us, but knowing her, it was going to be horrible and, without a doubt, painful.

And then, through all of these roiling emotions, I was also ecstatic. Even with all of my negative emotions, there was still a tiny part of me that felt like jumping up and down in glee, screaming '_I kissed Fang! I kissed Fang!'_ It was almost impossible to believe that it had happened. I'd known that there was a certain feeling for Fang that had been growing in my mind for a while now, but I'd managed to doggedly ignore it, dismissing it to the back of my mind as a silly little crush. But now, I doubted I could pass it off as just a crush any longer.

I started towards Fang when I saw him, determined to reach him and see if he was okay, only to have myself jerked back painfully by my own chain, pegged into the wall behind me. I swore and tugged again, but the chain didn't move a millimetre.

I spent the next ten minutes pulling at the damn metal, trying to get it to move so that I could reach Fang, but eventually I sat back against the wall, exhausted and defeated. It was impossible. I wasn't strong enough, especially not with the state I was in now. I closed my eyes and tried to banish the telltale pinpricks at the corners of my eyes, but it was futile. A single tear slid slowly down my face and dripped into my lap.

'Max?'

Immediately, my eyes snapped open to find Fang staring steadily at me from the opposite wall, where he had apparently managed to sit up without making a single sound. His face was emotionless as always, but I thought that I may have been able to detect the slightest glint of concern in his guarded eyes.

'Fang!' I tried to smile, but only managed a kind of mix between a wince and a grimace. 'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine.'

'Well you look like crap,' I told him.

His mouth twitched upward and he looked rueful. His hand reached up to explore the bruise and the source of the blood covering his hair. 'I've had better days.' He looked at me carefully and I got the uncomfortable sense that he was reading my mind. 'What about you?'

'Better than you.' I bit my lip and stared at the dark patch on his head, which had started to bleed again, probably because of his curious fingers. They were stained red now and he examined them, as though interested by the colour. And yet, he never showed the slightest inkling of discomfort. 'Where did that come from?' I asked him. 'You can't tell me it doesn't hurt.'

'Probably when Ari threw me against the wall,' he muttered. 'I'll manage.'

'I'd kiss it better, but I'm stuck all the way over here,' I told him, letting a smile creep onto my face. Somehow, I didn't feel as bad now that I could talk to him again.

He smirked. 'I'm sure you would.'

I nudged him with my foot, the only part that could reach him. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

He started to answer, but was cut off abruptly when the door in the corner swung open.

Brigid stood in the doorway, flanked as ever by Dylan and Ari. She was a whole lot more composed than the last time we had seen her – her hair and clothes were neat once again and she even managed to conjure a smile onto her face.

'Max!' she exclaimed. 'Nicholas! How are you both this morning? You've both been unconscious for hours! It's almost six o'clock at night!'

We stared at her. Then at each other. I was instantly wary of her happy, grandmotherly aura and I couldn't help but think that whatever was in store for us wasn't going to be pleasant at all.

Brigid was continuing to ramble on. 'You must be hungry, aren't you? And cold? Would you like blankets, food?'

'What do you want, Brigid?' I asked. My voice was blunt and I stared at her, wondering what she was up to.

Immediately, her smile disappeared, like it had been wiped away by an invisible eraser. 'Oh, nothing,' she said, her voice deceptively sweet. 'I just like my patients to be comfortable before their procedures. That's all.'

I went pale and my horrified eyes met Fang's. Procedures? She wasn't going to operate on us, was she? She couldn't.

But apparently she could, because without another word to us, she turned to her slave-boys and ordered icily, 'Take them to the procedural studio. They are top priority, do you hear me? If you let them get away again, it'll be your lives to pay.'

And then she was gone.

I stared at Ari. He was grinning at me, his artificially sharpened teeth reminding me more than ever of a wolf's. His eyes were chillingly cold.

I heard a click which I realised was the chain being released, and ee grabbed a hold of my arm, his nails digging into my flesh and hauled me upward, shoving me at Dylan, who caught me silently and held my so tight I thought he might be cutting off my circulation. I gasped at the sudden movement and felt the sick feeling, which had been slowly ebbing over the minutes, come back full force.

I saw Fang dragged up by the hair, wincing, and the next moment we were being pulled roughly out of the tiny room and down a dizzying maze of corridors that made me feel even sicker than I already was.

We were thrown into the same room as the one we had originally found last night, although it seemed like years ago. It was the same room that we had found Cassandra in, although she had obviously been moved since then, as she was nowhere to be found. The door slammed loudly behind us and then it was just me, Fang, and the crushing silence.

I sat down heavily on the metal table and put my head in my hands, drawing in a long, shuddering breath. I blinked desperately, warding away the tears. I wouldn't show any weakness. I wouldn't allow it.

I felt Fang sit down beside me and raised my head to look at him. 'What's going to happen to us, Fang?' I whispered. I hated how weak my voice sounded.

He looked down at his hands. 'I don't know,' he admitted. 'But we'll be okay, Max. I swear to you, we will be okay.'

'How do you know?' I said dully. I felt desolate, defeated.

He had no answer for me.

Timidly, I reached out and touched the place on his head where the spread of blood was thickest. It had almost dried now, but I was horrified to see how much of the sticky blood there was. I felt like fainting all over again. I could see where the wound was now, a dark spot of congealed blood against the skull. Ari had to have thrown him pretty hard against the wall to produce an injury like this.

He looked at me and I gave him a shaky smile. I wanted to believe that there was a way out of this mess, but I couldn't, I just couldn't.

There was a disturbance at the door and we both looked up to see four or five men and women dressed in sterile, white surgeon slacks, entering the room. All of them were wearing face masks and I didn't recognise any of the except for Brigid, who was easy to spot because of her flaming hair. They were pushing trays of equipment in front of them.

Immediately, my heart, which had been beating fast enough already, redoubled its pace so that I could actually feel it banging against my ribs, trying to escape. I sprang up from my place on the table and sweat beaded on my forehead. I felt Fang rise beside me and when I looked at him his face was set stiffly, his jaw hard. All colour that he had managed to regain since consciousness had deserted his face, leaving him looking like a ghost once more.

Brigid signalled and two of the surgeons came towards us, holding long, deadly looking needles in their gloved hands. I backed away and felt my knees slam against the table behind me. I swallowed audibly.

'Shh,' one of the surgeons said. She was female and her voice was smooth, light, soothing. It didn't seem like the sort of voice that belonged in this place. 'Just calm down,' she told us. 'It'll all be over soon.'

Before I could react, the other one grabbed my arm and injected the needle efficiently, even while I struggled against him.

Immediately, the world began to swim before my eyes and I could feel myself growing weak, stumbling, gripping the table to steady myself. Blackness was starting to creep around the edges of my vision, like an unwanted weed that grew and grew until it was unmanageable.

I couldn't focus on anything but Fang, Fang's eyes, Fang's steady, penetrating gaze. 'It'll be okay, Max,' I heard him breath.

Then the blackness overcame me and I was lost to the world.

_It'll be okay._

**xxx**

Nudge was worried sick. She had felt this way all day, ever since she had woken that morning to find Max's bed empty above her own. She had woken up late, and she thought that maybe Max had gone to breakfast early, although logically she knew it was impossible because everybody had breakfast at the same time. But a part of her hoped that this was the case.

That part died, however, when she got to the eating hall and found neither Max, nor Fang anywhere to be found, and Iggy in a panic that was similar to her own. He hadn't seen Fang since they left them last night, he told her. He didn't know anything.

He had taken her hand when he told her this, which made her beam despite everything. She was still in shock that she had kissed him, and that he had kissed her back. She found it hard to believe.

But that happiness faded as the day went on and Max and Fang were nowhere to be found. Alicia was also missing, they found, and it was with a growing sense of dread that the day wore on.

Now it was dinner, and Nudge had absolutely no appetite. She had barely talked all day, she had been so preoccupied with her thoughts. Iggy was sitting next to her, but neither of them spoke, and when Alan Stevens cheerfully announced that it was time to go back to their rooms, she sped off without a word. It was almost nine o'clock by that point. Dinner had taken longer than usual, she thought. Or maybe it was just her imagination.

When she got to her cell, however, all misgivings and apprehensions fled her as she spotted none other than Max sitting on her top bunk, staring at the wall opposite her blankly, not an emotion on her face.

Max looked fine. Her hair was lank, yes, and she was a little thinner and paler than usual, but other than that she looked exactly like the same person she had been yesterday.

Ecstatically, Nudge cried out and leaped onto the bed, squeezing Max in a bone crushing hug as she felt all the negative feeling she had been experiencing all day slide away at the reappearance of Max.

'Max!' she gabbled. 'Oh my god, where _were _you? What have you been doing all day? Do you have any idea how worried me and Ig have been? Oh and that reminds me, I have _something to tell you!_ But you first. What did you do when we left? You didn't get caught, did you? _Oh my god, you did!_ I bet you and Fang made some epic escape and they're all too embarrassed about it to say anything! Oh, and Fang! What happened between you two? Did anything happen? You can't tell me that nothing happened. You can _not.'_ She stopped her high pitched ramblings and sat back, staring at Max expectantly, wanting to hear the full tale. _'So?' _

Max stared at Nudge for a moment, and for a second Nudge thought that Max looked almost confused. Then she shook her head and lay back on her bed, staring at the roof.

'It was a bad idea, Monique,' she said. 'Go to bed.'

Nudge stared at her. 'Max? Since when do you call me _Monique? _Tell me what happened!'

'No. Go to bed. Stop trying to figure it out. It's nothing.'

Her voice sounded programmed. Robotic. Devoid of human emotion.

Slowly, Nudge climbed down from the top bunk, a terrible fear creeping into her heart.

She didn't know what it was yet, but she knew that something was very, very wrong.

**No, no you **_**don't **_**want to stab me with that pitchfork. Keep the knife away from me! Stop! What are you doing? Let go of me, you brutes! **_**Put me down! I order you!**_

**...**

**Review?**


	28. Chapter 28 Guilty AN

**OH MY GOD IT'S AN A/N, I PROMISED MYSELF I'D NEVER HAVE ANY REASON TO DO ONE OF THESE.**

**But GUYS, I feel so guilty. I mean, you may not have noticed, but this story has been kinda totally completely MIA for these past few months, and I feel really, really bad about it.**

**But the thing is that I was **_**this **_**close to deleting my entire account and letting that be the end of it, before my family talked me out of it (which is weird, because they always used to rag on me for liking fanfiction...).**

**But here's the thing: I'm just not into Fanfiction any more. Not even just the writing aspect of it either; I don't even read any Fanfics these days. So, therefore, I've had no inspiration to write this story, and so I told myself that I'd give myself a break from it until I decided to go back to it. But, lo and behold, I haven't had that want. In fact, my opinion on fanfiction hasn't changed at all and I still kind of want to delete my account.**

**The reason I **_**haven't **_**deleted the account is because I feel a sort of need to finish this story. Not because I want to, but because everytime I get an alert in my email pertaining to my writing, my guilt grows just that little bit until I kind of feel like I **_**have **_**to finish this story. Like it would be totally unforgivable if I didn't.**

**But then it comes to mind that these thoughts might be completely unwarranted. I know that this story has it's fair share of love, because you guys have expressed it pretty profusely in your reviews (THANKS for that, by the way – every review made me do a little dance inside), but it's not like it's ever reached the point where people are actually doing **_**fanart **_**of it, as is the case with, say, Diary of a Lovesick Mutant (Phoenix Fanatic's wonderful fanfiction). (Irony: when people are doing fanwork of fanwork.)**

**So here's my question to you guys: Just how mad would you be if I decided to close down this account, leaving this story unfinished? Would you want to put my head on a spike and then dance on my ashes, or would you just call me a bitch and then get on with your lives? Or would you not care at all? Do you not care enough to actually read this now, even?**

**If I have enough people baying for my blood then I'll probably end up continuing, but... no promises, alright?**

**Anyway guys, please answer my question in the reviews so I can know what the best course of action to take for this story is. It would be really helpful. **

**Oh, and sorry again. I really do feel awfully guilty.**

**-MaxRideFreak**

**P.S – Wow. That really is some verbal vomit up there. I shouldn't have made you read all that... anyway! Go answer my question! Now!**


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